# why do expensive hubs make so much noise



## Formerbmx37 (Apr 7, 2007)

after finding the hope pro 2 ss hub on jenson for a great price i started researching it and found a video on google of it and from there linked to videos of hadleys and kings and it seemed as if all the expensive hubs make and outrageous amount of very annoying noise and im just wondering why and if theres something you could do to the hub to lessen the clicking


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## XSL_WiLL (Nov 2, 2004)

More engagement points. More solid engagement.


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## saturnine (Mar 28, 2007)

people can hear your money that way


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## JGill (May 2, 2008)

Formerbmx37 said:


> after finding the hope pro 2 ss hub on jenson for a great price i started researching it and found a video on google of it and from there linked to videos of hadleys and kings and it seemed as if all the expensive hubs make and outrageous amount of very annoying noise and im just wondering why and if theres something you could do to the hub to lessen the clicking


Having an XC background, I found the more engagement to be weird at first too. It's like it works against you as you try to gain forward momentum. It's not really the case with a dj bike though. I started to kind of like the noisy hubs now though...especially on single speed hubs.


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## Demo-9 (Mar 24, 2006)

More $$ = better engagement = more noise.

I have Profile rear hubs on my DJ and my FR bike. I personally like the louder hub to gauge speed on.


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## euroford (Sep 10, 2006)

loud hubs save lives.

prevented a pretty serious crash when one of my buds was working on the backside of dj a the other day. i couldn't see him over the jump and fortunately that king bzzzzzz alerted him to an incoming. lol.


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## Formerbmx37 (Apr 7, 2007)

how loud is it really having only heard it on crappy youtube videos 
like my bmx hub clicks but not that many times and not that loud it seemed on the videos
are the clicks on either hub the same just more or is the mtb hub actually louder 
because that seems like it would piss me off


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## ducktape (May 21, 2007)

Come to think of it, when I got my new bike (STP) I immediately noticed how much louder the hub was, even though it was a deore, same as the other bike.

So this thread got me off my arse to go & check the difference between the two. I was actually shocked to find out that the hub on the other bike isn't making any clicking noise at all! They XM117 wheels are actually of my old '06 Trance, but the hubs were professionally serviced about a year ago and not seen much riding since. The engagement is fine, so what does no noise mean? Can grease work it's way into the mechanism and quieten it down?

It would make sense that more engagement equals more noise, and more noise would be perceived as louder. However I would think there is most likely variations in loudness even between hubs that have the same amount of engagement.


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## Formerbmx37 (Apr 7, 2007)

so if a put a card in my spokes could i trick people in to thinking my bike is good


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## XSL_WiLL (Nov 2, 2004)

Well, the Deore freehub body is not serviceable. Some of the Shimano hubs were "silent drive" or whatever the marketing gimmick was.

More/thicker grease can quiet a hub, but it can also prevent proper engagement.


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## .WestCoastHucker. (Jan 14, 2004)

i have Phil Wood hubs and they are pretty spendy. they are far from a noisy annoying hub, therefor your logic is flawed, topic over...


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## ducktape (May 21, 2007)

XSL_WiLL said:


> Well, the Deore freehub body is not serviceable. Some of the Shimano hubs were "silent drive" or whatever the marketing gimmick was.
> 
> More/thicker grease can quiet a hub, but it can also prevent proper engagement.


I always like your posts Will!:thumbsup:

Now I feel stupid, should have known that servicing a hubs bearings has nothing to do with the freehub.
Oh well I guess I'll see what happens, worst case is having to buy a new hub, but that shouldn't be for yonks as that bike doesn't get much use.


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## XSL_WiLL (Nov 2, 2004)

Well, if the freehub dies on you, you can replace just the freehub. It's a much cheaper and simpler ordeal than having to lace a new hub in. It simply threads into the hub body on those Shimano hubs.


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## ServeEm (Jun 15, 2005)

I hate the noise so I grease up my ody cassette on my 20 to tone it down. I ride a lot of street at night so less is better imo


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## ducktape (May 21, 2007)

XSL_WiLL said:


> Well, if the freehub dies on you, you can replace just the freehub. It's a much cheaper and simpler ordeal than having to lace a new hub in. It simply threads into the hub body on those Shimano hubs.


Excellent!

When you said it wasn't serviceable I assumed it wasn't replaceable either (without doing the entire hub). I have lots more bike stuff to learn, hubs and wheels being one domain I've left alone to date, only took a cassette off for the first time a few weeks ago to try out ss.


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## xray (May 5, 2005)

Been riding Hope hubs for 4 years... old one wasn't bad at all, I'd call it average - but I recently got a Pro 2 SS and it's ridiculous, first cleaning it gets I'm packing it with grease so it's silent.

People just equate noise to quality in hubs, and while it's generally true (louder because of more pawls, and stronger springs engage with more force, etc) you can make any hub pretty silent if you want.

One handy use for it: throw the cranks backwards and pedestrians jump, and usually get out of the way pretty damn fast. Otherwise pointless, especially since I can hear it over cars/my music.


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