the dog ate my hub body

[Bob Ross]

Well, not really...but it sure looks like a dog got his chompers on this!

I finally got around to replacing the cassette on my DT Swiss Mon Chasseral RR1450 wheel. Have a little over 7200 miles on these wheels and this cassette.

When I got the cassette off, the hub body looked like this:




Now, I've changed plenty of cassettes on other wheels -- including some with DT Swiss 240s hubs -- and while I probably didn't go nearly 7200 miles between cassette changes on those wheels, those other hubs didn't look anywhere near as chewed up as this one. It was a real bear (to continue the animal metaphor) getting a new cassette back on that hub.

Is this "normal" wear & tear? Or is this hub body shot?

[houston]

File down the worst burrs and keep on running it. I have had some shimano/SRAM freehub bodies that looked almost that awful too. Looks like you have a bit more power than I do. I see you like to ride in the middle of the cassette. Changing cassettes won't be horrible as long as you know what you are dealing with and you "reverse" the cogs with a chain whip before you try to pull them off.

[jamesand]

I'm curious what make/model of cassette you were using. The ones with an alloy carrier (Ultegra and up) tend to chew less on the FH body.
I don't know about SRAM road levels for carriers, but their 990 MTB cassette has an alloy carrier.

[christian]

Can I interest you in a Sturmey-Archer AM medium-range 3 speed hub?

[Bob Ross]

I'm curious what make/model of cassette you were using.

Shimano Ultegra 6700, purchased new in late 2010.

[BShow]

Shimano Ultegra 6700, purchased new in late 2010.

I've seen at least that much damage on the body of my 190 hub and I hardly even used the wheel. If it's got 500 miles on it, it's a lot. I was running a 6500 cassette it chewed the crap out of it. I've filed it down and whatnot, but it's frustrating that it got chewed up so easily.

[ergott]

Enough torque on the lockring?

[krthornton]

Enough torque on the lockring?

This is good advice. I have 3 sets of 240s, and one was showing some chewing. Lockring was loose. Occasionally double-checking that it is clamped down has prevented any further gouging.

[Tristan]

Is this "normal" wear & tear? Or is this hub body shot?

That's not uncommon for a DT Swiss freehub and isn't really anything to worry about. You can see that the largest cogs (which are grouped together on an aluminium spider) have not dug into the freehub body, and neither have the smallest cogs where you're unlikely to produce a lot of torque. It's the individually-spaced cogs in the center of the cassette which did the damage.

In their own manual DT suggest to use a file to carefully take off any high points.
dt hub use a file.png

The hard part is generally getting the cassette off. Use one chainwhip to hold the cassette on the largest cog and use the second chainwhip to rotate the stuck cassette cog in a counter-clockwise direction.
two chainwhips.jpg

Don't forget to tighten the lockring and torque to 40Nm. If you don’t have a torque wrench, be aware that 40Nm is pretty flippin’ tight - about eight times the torque used on your handlebars! When the veins in your arms start to show you’re probably at the right torque. The correct lockring torque is super important because it prevents the lockring from coming loose and reduces creaking noises and this marring.

[thollandpe]

Don't forget to tighten the lockring and torque to 40Nm. If you don’t have a torque wrench, be aware that 40Nm is pretty flippin’ tight - about eight times the torque used on your handlebars! When the veins in your arms start to show you’re probably at the right torque. The correct lockring torque is super important because it prevents the lockring from coming loose and reduces creaking noises and this marring.

And before torquing make sure the lockring isn’t bottoming out. Granted I work on a lot of mongrel setups, but I have seen many instances where the lockring bottoms out on the cassette body before the cogs are real tight. So a thin spacer is added inside the last cog.

[dgaddis]

Don't forget to tighten the lockring and torque to 40Nm. If you don’t have a torque wrench, be aware that 40Nm is pretty flippin’ tight - about

30ft*lbs, or 360in*lbs

[SignatureJustin]

Instead of the chain whip reverse trick, I give the cassette a little whack from a rubber mallet and they come right off.

[musgravecycles]

File the burrs off and put it back together.

p.s. I love the titanium body on my Dura Ace hubs. ;-)

[coolberto hipsterdor]

My old white industries hub looked like this when I got it as did my HED, they're both fine many miles later but I do torque the crap out of the lockrings to make sure they don't keep gouging in. FWIW when cassettes are stuck on I gently pry out the loose cogs then rock the rear largest set back and forth until it comes off, but sometimes it can't slip over the burrs in which case just file them and remove the last 3 cog set or what have you.

[sk_tle]

The shimano hexadrive system was made for steel freehub body. With an aluminium body it is just broken by design. In this area campagnolo was much smarter. Wasn't it the reason shimano 7800 dura-ace cassette were made differently ? Have they improved in this area in the dura-ace 9000 11sp group ?

American Classic found a workaround by using an aluminium body with small steel "faces" in the area where the splines are usually chewed. It is a patented system. Did anyone tried them ? Have other hub manufacturers found another solution ?

[dgaddis]

American Classic found a workaround by using an aluminium body with small steel "faces" in the area where the splines are usually chewed. It is a patented system. Did anyone tried them ? Have other hub manufacturers found another solution.

I've been riding the same AC hub for several years now, FH body is still perfect. Granted, it' been mostly used as a SS w/a wide base cog, and when geared with a PG-990 cassette.

[mattsbeers]

This is why I love campy!

[musgravecycles]

I love Campag too...but they're not without their own challenges. I've seen my fair share of cracked Record freehub bodies.

[krthornton]

Campag cassettes can gouge 240 hub bodies, too--gotta tighten that lock ring to spec, or you'll get a little damage after a time. My earlier post was referring to a DT/Campag setup.

[sonny]

one of the very few times i look at a bike and think there's gotta be a better way