|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Ritchey Zero hub freewheel problem
Thought I would direct this problem to you geniuses on rec.bicycles.tech.
I have a set of six month old Ritchey Pro Aero road wheels on my Orbea. I like the wheels themselves- they are nice and strong, with no buckles or broken spokes to date. However, the rear "Zero" system hub has been the source of some annoyance. A few weeks back the freewheel assembly started making an awful loose bearing sound, the kind of sound you would expect to hear when a bearing race has absolutely no lubrication and loose balls are knocking against metal. At this stage I thought I may have been a bit enthusiastic whilst washing the bike the day previous, and that I had somehow managed to wash the grease out of the freewheel assembly (I had used a spray on degreaser on the hub cassette). Rather than claim under warranty at the place of purchase, I gave the wheel to my LBS boy wonder mechanic. Boy wonder took apart the assembly, and found little lubrication in the bearings. His comment was that it looked like the factory hadn't put enough lubrication into the freewheel assembly, and stated that my washing was only a contributing factor and not the main factor leading to the problem. Boy wonder then repacked the bearings and reassembled the freewheel, and everything was OK. Until today that is. The awful freewheel noise has returned (only appears whilst freewheeling), and this time there was no bike washing prior to the event involved. Nor has the hub been exposed to any other unusual conditions. This makes me think there is another issue causing this noise, perhaps a design fault. So, does anyone here know if this is a common problem with Ritchey Zero rear hubs? Anyone know what causes it? Ritchey components have little support here in Australia, and whilst the wheel are under warranty, I would like to avoid the downtime associated with making a claim. The Ritchey distributor is located in another state, and the dealer has indicated that they will insist on sending the wheel back to the distributor for inspection. It would help me immensly if I knew the nature of the problem before I start arguing with the dealer. Thanks in advance, Sasha |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
"Sasha" wrote in message ... Thought I would direct this problem to you geniuses on rec.bicycles.tech. I have a set of six month old Ritchey Pro Aero road wheels on my Orbea. I I feel your pain. I have a set of Ritchey wheels with the WCS hubs. They aren't the same wheels as yours, but probably the same hubs. I've had them about 3 years. They're simply fantastic wheels except for the freehub body. According to my LBS, it looks like they really cut a corner there. He claims they adapted a low-end shimano freehub body and did a few things of their own to it ... so it can't be replaced with a better shimano freehub body. My LBS called them and got a new freehub body shipped out. It did the same thing after about three months. So I contacted Ritchey and got on their case. They sent me several replacement freehubs at no charge. The funny thing is, since they did that, I haven't had the problem happen again .... in thousands and thousands (tens of thousands, actually) of miles. But that's the problem. They installed one inferior component and you're experiencing the consequences. Good luck, Bob C. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
"Sasha" wrote in message ...
Thought I would direct this problem to you geniuses on rec.bicycles.tech. I have a set of six month old Ritchey Pro Aero road wheels on my Orbea. I like the wheels themselves- they are nice and strong, with no buckles or broken spokes to date. However, the rear "Zero" system hub has been the source of some annoyance. A few weeks back the freewheel assembly started making an awful loose bearing sound, the kind of sound you would expect to hear when a bearing race has absolutely no lubrication and loose balls are knocking against metal. At this stage I thought I may have been a bit enthusiastic whilst washing the bike the day previous, and that I had somehow managed to wash the grease out of the freewheel assembly (I had used a spray on degreaser on the hub cassette). Rather than claim under warranty at the place of purchase, I gave the wheel to my LBS boy wonder mechanic. Boy wonder took apart the assembly, and found little lubrication in the bearings. His comment was that it looked like the factory hadn't put enough lubrication into the freewheel assembly, and stated that my washing was only a contributing factor and not the main factor leading to the problem. Boy wonder then repacked the bearings and reassembled the freewheel, and everything was OK. Until today that is. The awful freewheel noise has returned (only appears whilst freewheeling), and this time there was no bike washing prior to the event involved. Nor has the hub been exposed to any other unusual conditions. This makes me think there is another issue causing this noise, perhaps a design fault. So, does anyone here know if this is a common problem with Ritchey Zero rear hubs? Anyone know what causes it? Ritchey components have little support here in Australia, and whilst the wheel are under warranty, I would like to avoid the downtime associated with making a claim. The Ritchey distributor is located in another state, and the dealer has indicated that they will insist on sending the wheel back to the distributor for inspection. It would help me immensly if I knew the nature of the problem before I start arguing with the dealer. Thanks in advance, Sasha http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...com%26rnum%3D1 I had the same issue last year. To their credit - Ritchey took the wheel back and rebuilt it up for me with a new (and seemingly improved) hub. I was never able to get the cassette body off, and the Ritchey Tech that emailed me said that it wouldn't come off for him either. Wait for the off season and ship it off - they will make sure you are content. Their customer service has always been among the very best. -a |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Andrew Martin writes:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...com%26rnum%3D1 I had the same issue last year. To their credit - Ritchey took the wheel back and rebuilt it up for me with a new (and seemingly improved) hub. I was never able to get the cassette body off, and the Ritchey Tech that emailed me said that it wouldn't come off for him either. Wait for the off season and ship it off - they will make sure you are content. Their customer service has always been among the very best. Did you discover what went wrong in the hub? Meanwhile you ought to use TinyURL and reduce such long addresses to: http://tinyurl.com/3wyhy Just look in: http://tinyurl.com/ Jobst Brandt |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Atom Freewheel indexing. | meb | Techniques | 8 | December 9th 04 12:06 AM |
Atom Freewheel indexing. | meb | Techniques | 4 | November 8th 04 06:37 PM |
56 RITCHEY ROAD LOGIC | Rick | Marketplace | 1 | August 1st 04 01:40 AM |
"Actually you are the first person to bring up this issue" | James Annan | UK | 421 | March 31st 04 11:05 PM |
Replacing freewheel - question about chain | Dan Musicant | Techniques | 4 | August 8th 03 05:10 PM |