Wobble in hubs

In article <[email hidden]>,

ZeeExSixAre said:

We were building up bikes today at the shop and the freewheel part of the
wheel I was working on has a pretty serious wobble to it when the wheel was
just freewheeling. It was on a Giant Sedona.

It turned out that it was because the freewheel wasn't tightened down first,
but every single freewheel that I've seen had some wobble to it, whether it
be slight or not. I can't remember if freehubs do it too, but I think they
do.

My coworker said that someone else said it was to enhance shifting. It
makes sense, but then it would also tend to make it shift worse, since it'd
be more apt to jump out of gear. And this was the case. Since that
coworker didn't tighten down the freewheel, I pedaled it out for a test
ride, and not going anywhere, I knew the freewheel had tightened. Shifting
was fine after that.

My question is, is the wobble due to poor manufacturing tolerances?

Yes, it is. But before someone pounces on me, the wobble is of no
practical significance.

That "explanation" about enhancing shifting is, as the Brits say,
bollocks.

ZeeExSixAre said:

We were building up bikes today at the shop and the freewheel part of the
wheel I was working on has a pretty serious wobble to it when the wheel was
just freewheeling. It was on a Giant Sedona.

It turned out that it was because the freewheel wasn't tightened down first,
but every single freewheel that I've seen had some wobble to it, whether it
be slight or not. I can't remember if freehubs do it too, but I think they
do.

My coworker said that someone else said it was to enhance shifting. It
makes sense, but then it would also tend to make it shift worse, since it'd
be more apt to jump out of gear. And this was the case. Since that
coworker didn't tighten down the freewheel, I pedaled it out for a test
ride, and not going anywhere, I knew the freewheel had tightened. Shifting
was fine after that.

My question is, is the wobble due to poor manufacturing tolerances?

Yes. Most freehubs, and freewheels wobble. There is lots of slack in
most of their bearings.

They generally use shims to adjust bearing clearance rather than cups
and cones, which is really crude. However, as the bearings only do
anything when you're freewheeling and they carry virtually no load, it's
no big deal.