Thought I would direct this problem to you geniuses on rec.bicycles.tech.
I have a set of six month old Ritchey Pro Aero road wheels on my Orbea. I
like the wheels themselves- they are nice and strong, with no buckles or
broken spokes to date. However, the rear "Zero" system hub has been the
source of some annoyance. A few weeks back the freewheel assembly started
making an awful loose bearing sound, the kind of sound you would expect to
hear when a bearing race has absolutely no lubrication and loose balls are
knocking against metal. At this stage I thought I may have been a bit
enthusiastic whilst washing the bike the day previous, and that I had
somehow managed to wash the grease out of the freewheel assembly (I had used
a spray on degreaser on the hub cassette). Rather than claim under warranty
at the place of purchase, I gave the wheel to my LBS boy wonder mechanic.
Boy wonder took apart the assembly, and found little lubrication in the
bearings. His comment was that it looked like the factory hadn't put enough
lubrication into the freewheel assembly, and stated that my washing was only
a contributing factor and not the main factor leading to the problem. Boy
wonder then repacked the bearings and reassembled the freewheel, and
everything was OK.
Until today that is. The awful freewheel noise has returned (only appears
whilst freewheeling), and this time there was no bike washing prior to the
event involved. Nor has the hub been exposed to any other unusual
conditions. This makes me think there is another issue causing this noise,
perhaps a design fault.
So, does anyone here know if this is a common problem with Ritchey Zero rear
hubs? Anyone know what causes it? Ritchey components have little support
here in Australia, and whilst the wheel are under warranty, I would like to
avoid the downtime associated with making a claim. The Ritchey distributor
is located in another state, and the dealer has indicated that they will
insist on sending the wheel back to the distributor for inspection. It would
help me immensly if I knew the nature of the problem before I start arguing
with the dealer.
Thanks in advance,
Sasha