Do you have any recommendations for a loud freehub for a road bike? Also will it fit a 9s cassette or are the louder ones new generation cassettes?
Brand/ model if possible
The first generation SRAM powerdome, the hollow body guitar of cassettes. It’s an amp for your freehub.
Do you WANT a loud one ?
If so Hope hubs are loud.
The 1st mtb ride with one I thought it was so loud I really couldn’t hear myself think !
‘Put some extra grease into to freehub ratchet’ was Hope’s advice if I didn’t like the ‘reassurance of the click’. (Easily done too).
It was great though for buzzing my riding buddies on downhills to make it abundantly clear they were too slow ðŸ˜
For 9 speed… I’d expect all the new hubs are 10/11 speed. But I’d think a 9 speed cassette would fit with suitable spacers in there as it’s still a hyperglide set of splines from 6 speed up to 11 (only changes shape of the freehub body at 12)
Yeah that’s great advice about the adaptor, thanks!
I heard hope has a nice sound, but that’s mtb only right?
I ride an old cannondale through amsterdam for fun, sometimes it’s really busy and a freewheel could be less obnoxious than shouting and safer than a bell because you can keep hands at the controls,… Plus I’m due a new rear wheel. Indicating to training buds that I’m sitting up and freewheeling when behind them is a bonus lol
Loudest I have come across is a DT laced to deep carbon with the 54t ratchet upgrade kit.
It’s not a finely-tuned loud like Phil Wood or Chris King, but straight up loud.
There are alot of options on the mtb side, but is more nuanced because of the plethora of engagement points, as opposed just brutally loud.
Hollow carbon rims enhance the ratchet sound?
For 9 speed… I’d expect all the new hubs are 10/11 speed. But I’d think a 9 speed cassette would fit with suitable spacers in there as it’s still a hyperglide set of splines from 6 speed up to 11 (only changes shape of the freehub body at 12)
The overall cog spacing on 10 speed cassettes is actually narrower than 9 speed, and many of the Shimano 10 speed road cassettes came with a spacer that allowed you to use them on 9 speed hubs. When Shimano first introduced 10 speed Dura Ace, they also had a new freehub design that was only compatible with the new cassettes (narrower body, taller splines), but they quickly dropped that and just continued with the 9 speed freehub plus spacer for 10 speed…
This page recommends 36t for road so that you get the angry buzz without the drag that comes with a 54t ratchet
https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=139312
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Not sure about drag. The 54t gives you more points of engagement. The teeth are obviously a bit smaller so you need to keep on top of your maintenance.
All else being apples to apples, the 54 is loudest.
Do you have any recommendations for a loud freehub for a road bike? Also will it fit a 9s cassette or are the louder ones new generation cassettes?
Brand/ model if possible
Chris King classic rear hub; 10 speed only (could fit some 11 speed cassettes). It is the bees-knees, pun intended.
The loudest freehubs I have come across are the one’s Hunt sticks on their wheels. I don’t believe Hunt makes any of its own hubs or internals but they are all branded Hunt. I have a pair of Roval’s with DT Swiss internals and something about that system is loud but nothing like the Hunt wheels. My experience is specifically with the cheaper carbon Hunt wheels but I believe they use similar internals in all their wheels.
Pedal the eff’ing thing so no one can hear you freewheeling!
There’s nothing worse than that pleb behind you back-pedalling in the wrong gear so he can hear himself doing nothing, while you are churning your guts out on the front.
But if you must have it then as already mentioned, the hunts (loud sound cheap) or hope (not so loud but engineered noise) are pretty good.
Older campag zonda etc used to fairly noisy, don’t know if they are now.
My old zipp 808 was a portable echo chamber which probably made it sound louder than it was, as every gear change was a crash through it.
My lw’s with a dt free hub have never been loud even when dry…
Clip a playing card to the chainstay with a clothes peg.
There’s a contraption called Turbospoke
I haven’t found out if it’s available with a carbon fiber card for triathletes
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Hi,
I use Syntace hubs on all my bikes (MTB, road, tri). They have been bomb-proof and they are really loud (if not accidently damped down by over-ambitious bike mechs).
A friend of mine uses a NOA hub on his gravel bike - also impressively “present”.
Hi
Apologies for slow reply. Work getting in the way of triathlon ðŸ˜.
Hope hubs are also on road hubs as well as mtb
I had a Hope hubs for about 6 or 7 years on wheels on my road bike (onto Mavic Open Pro rims as a reliable every day wheel) as well as on the mtb.
I only sold them about 6 months ago after I’d sold the old rim braked road bike and the new bike has discs. Hubs were still going strong. I’m a great fan of Hope stuff. They understand shiiite weather and reliability. Also the details for servicing are available online etc. The great customer service is also legendary in UK circles.
I have the Hope RS4 hubs (this is their road hub). It has the nice Hope buzz but is a bit quieter than Hope MTB hubs. This is because they only use 2 pawls for the road freehub instead of 4 pawls. Apparently you can get the MTB freehub and it is compatible though.
My HED hub from my Jet 6+ wheelset is quite loud, louder than my Hope. Could be the resonance with the carbon fairing like others mentioned above.
I totally agree on using loud freehubs as an alerting device. I have a bell on my gravel bike but usually dont need to use it with the hope hub buzz. Whenever I use my bell it seems to startle people lol.
Yeah. I always think a bell is a bit rude / abrupt.
But a good backpedal to make the hub sound like a chainsaw and maybe some unnecessary shifts is usually a good alternative.
Clip a playing card to the chainstay with a clothes peg.
My bladed spokes sliced the playing card 🤷
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