I have recently purchased a new superlight disc and had it at my lbs securing the lock ring to the free hub when the lbs techie said hey this free hub shouldn’t have that play in it. Now I will say first I patronize my lbs as often as I possibly can but I don’t have the greatest confidence in his knowledge/ability. I felt the cassette and granted it did have a minimal amount of movement that you could feel as you tilted the cassette on the ball bearings. So I called a representative from HED and he assured me that it was common for the free hub to have a minimal amount of movement (within allowed tolorence) in order to help true the disc wheel. I felt comfortable with HED’s response and appreciated their regard over my concern. Has anyone noticed this in their HED hubs as well. Is this common on most carbon disc wheels in order to true them?
Bump. Sorry, Someone has to know something about this?
You mean when the wheel is freewheeling, the cassette looks like it is wobbling like it’s doing some sort of dance?? Mine does that too…I think it is normal
I had an experience with the trueness and a broken bushing on a new H3 rear last year. It was resolved (by sending it back) and it has ridden fine for 3 IM’s and 2 half’s in the last year for the rear…but I will say that once again, before saddling up for IMAZ I looked at that slight wobble and wondered, again…it did fine.
All I remember is some sort of dialog between HED and my LBS (reinforced by the bike check in at Eagleman)…the LBS thinks the play is unusual while HED reasons it is fine because when the chain is pulling on the cassette, the wobble is pulled out (to one side) and it isn’t enough to cause friction. It is slightly disconcerting, however. But I guess I am fine with it. (anyway I use a disc on my important A races)
Hey waterbottle -
are you talking about the cogs moving on the body? If you are, that is not normal. As I read your post it seems like you are talking about the cogs jiggling a tiny bit. They should snug down onto the body when you tighten the lockring. If you are using 10 speed, you will need to slide on the 1mm spacer that comes with the cassette, then put the cogs on. -Andy (at Hed)
Hi Andy:
Please explain. My HED (which you fixed last June when I broke the bushing on the first ride), does have that same sort of play that seems to be described above. By hand, when the wheel is off the bike, you can wobble the cassette independently from the axle slightly. Grab the biggest cog and just torque it 90 degrees from plane of the wheel’s path of travel. Not a lot, but definitely not fixed like any other wheel I have (including a competitor’s disc). Is that unacceptable?
Dog, That is exactly what I’m talking about. The cassette does not move on the free hub but the cassette which is tightened onto the freehub (securely with lockring) has a slight amount of movement (grabbing it with two fingers and simply rocking it on a 180 degree plane) to it in relation to the axle. Granted it’s very minimal but I would think that in the long run this would only cause problems. HED’s response to me was that “they utilized the amount of travel (within specs) to true the disc, as do the vast majority of other disc manufacturers”. Does this sound likely?
I sounded reasonable when I got that response from HED last year, and the wheel seems to have been fine after they repaired it…but how can you really tell?
I will compare it to my Zipp 909 this weekend and let you know fi the Zipp has any wobble in it.
Both - there will be a very small amount of play in the body itself. It is the way they come from Shimano, as far as I know, it is the way they have always been that way. Shimano work great and last forever. If Shimano needs them to have a tiny amount of play to make them work, I for one will not complain.
To reiterate, cassette jiggle - bad. Small body play - ok. Lots of body play - probably bad. Feel free to call or send a wheel back so that we can check it out and make sure it is correct. -Andy (at Hed)
sorry to delay getting back to you; my Zipp disc is stored, so it wasn’t at hand.
No, the Zipp disc cassette does not have that same “play” vs. the wheel that my HED3 has.