While I'm at it, I'll add one last "public service announcement". This is about the Reynolds AR Carbon Wheels (27.5") with SRAM freehub. The rims are fantastic but the hub has an unusual failure condition, and this hub design may be used with other rims.
I was riding around Moab UT going up a steep incline and the pedals suddenly jerked forward free of any tension as the bike made a horrible clacking sound. At first I thought the chain came off or sprocket teeth broke. But exterior observation showed the drivetrain was perfectly intact. When biking in remote areas I carry a toolset, so I removed the rear wheel and axle, and removed the rear cassette. The pawls inside the hub body that engage the freehub ratchet had sheared off; their edges were rounded not sharp. It looked like this:
Yeah, those are bits of metal broken off the pawls in there!
Needless to say, that ended my trip and I had to hike out of the desert pushing my bike.
When I got home I contacted Reynolds (Hayes). Apparently, this is a known design flaw in these hubs and they have rebuild kits:
Part 21290 "Reynolds XD Driver Body" replaces the cassette ratchet cylinder/gear.
Part 20702 "2015-2016 Attack Assault Strike Hub Rebuild Kit" replaces the hub pawls and springs.
Rebuilt, it looks like this (note the pawl edges are sharp, not rounded off anymore):
In nearly 40 years of avid cycling and working on bikes I've never seen a failure like this. I've got bikes decades old with tens of thousands of miles. I've replaced chains, cassettes, sprockets, bearings, etc. to keep them running like new. But I've never seen a freehub fail internally like this. Just FYI.
I was riding around Moab UT going up a steep incline and the pedals suddenly jerked forward free of any tension as the bike made a horrible clacking sound. At first I thought the chain came off or sprocket teeth broke. But exterior observation showed the drivetrain was perfectly intact. When biking in remote areas I carry a toolset, so I removed the rear wheel and axle, and removed the rear cassette. The pawls inside the hub body that engage the freehub ratchet had sheared off; their edges were rounded not sharp. It looked like this:
Yeah, those are bits of metal broken off the pawls in there!
Needless to say, that ended my trip and I had to hike out of the desert pushing my bike.
When I got home I contacted Reynolds (Hayes). Apparently, this is a known design flaw in these hubs and they have rebuild kits:
Part 21290 "Reynolds XD Driver Body" replaces the cassette ratchet cylinder/gear.
Part 20702 "2015-2016 Attack Assault Strike Hub Rebuild Kit" replaces the hub pawls and springs.
Rebuilt, it looks like this (note the pawl edges are sharp, not rounded off anymore):
In nearly 40 years of avid cycling and working on bikes I've never seen a failure like this. I've got bikes decades old with tens of thousands of miles. I've replaced chains, cassettes, sprockets, bearings, etc. to keep them running like new. But I've never seen a freehub fail internally like this. Just FYI.
