Rolf hub disassembly

"Tony Eva" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have a problem with a creaking rear Rolf Sestriere wheel, and need to disassemble the hub to
inspect and regrease the bearings. Trouble is, I can't for the life of me see how to do that.
There are no locknuts, flats for spanners, nothing. Any clues how to open it up?

Also, any suggestions on how to quieten the incredibly loud buzzing from the hub when
freewheeling, would be hugely appreciated.

--
Tony

Are the holes where the skewer goes through hex shaped like Chris King hubs? Just a guess - I'm not
familiar with the Sestriere hub, the Rolf Dolomite hubs I have have flats for cone wrenches.

Mike

Hey Tony. Remove the skewer. Hook your fingers under the biggest cog, place thumbs on the spokes of
your choice and pull the cogs off. The cogs and freehub body should pull the drive side endcap off
the axle. This should expose the 2 Splined gears (the ratcheting mechanism). Your hub has 4 sealed
cartridge bearings (2 in the freehub body and 2 in the hub shell). Unless they feel rough, leave
them alone. Special tools are requires to get them out (except the hub shell non-drive side
bearing...knock the axle out of the hub from the drive side and that bearing will come out with the
axle), even to get to the seals for regreasing. I would just clean everything (the 2 splined cogs,
the splines in the hub shell and freehub body, the springs and the spacer/sleeve the splined cogs
surround with a nice brush and some degreaser. Make sure you get every bit of corrosion and
particulate out of the nooks and crannies. Inspect the mating surfaces of the splined cogs.... any
chipped teeth? no? good. Noise from the unit (the buzzing you mentioned) depends on choice of lube.
If it is noisy now (noisier than when it was new) then it was probably quite dry in there. Relube
the mechanism with a light coat of the lightest grease you have (nothing too heavy).... just a light
coat on all surfaces you cleaned. The heavier the grease the quieter the sound but then you risk the
chance of the splines not engaging fully and that may cause chipped teeth (or inconsistent
engagement). Unfortunately, the price you pay for a light, quick to engage rear hub is the noise you
don't like. All splined hubs will be noisier than their pawl engaging counterparts. Unfortunately,
if you want to eliminate the noise completely (not just lessen it), you need new wheels, as the hub
shells are proprietary to Rolf (and now Trek/Bontrager). Ask anyone using Chris King, Marwi,
DT/Hugi, Edco, or Bontrager hubs what they do to deal with the noise... (I run Phil Oil in my Marwi
for winter. On cold, foggy, sound travels further than your vision can see kinda days I must scare
the [censored] out of people).

Now, could you tell us under what conditions the wheel creaks? (I'd hate to have you go through all
that if it is just a simple rubber seal that is dry and squeaking...).

Hope this helps. Keith Pears

"The knack lies in learning to throw yourself
- at the ground and miss" Douglas Adams.

"Tony Eva" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have a problem with a creaking rear Rolf Sestriere wheel, and need to disassemble the hub to
inspect and regrease the bearings. Trouble is, I can't for the life of me see how to do that.
There are no locknuts, flats for spanners, nothing. Any clues how to open it up?

Also, any suggestions on how to quieten the incredibly loud buzzing from the hub when
freewheeling, would be hugely appreciated.

--
Tony

"kapers" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:q%o9b.12751$Cu3.9516@edtnps84...

Quoted message said:

[ ... long and very useful stuff snipped ... ]

Thanks Keith, that is very helpful. I don't have the hub right here in front of me so I can't try
it right now; but if I understand you, it just basically pulls apart? That hadn't occurred to me
at all :-)

Quoted message said:

Now, could you tell us under what conditions the wheel creaks?

Well, I didn't want to bore the group with yet another "my bike creaks" story, but since you asked,
here goes... :-)

It occurs under heavy load (normally when I am going uphill, though hard pedalling on the flat can
produce it), in sync with the cadence.

It occurs in all gears, and both chainrings, when I'm sitting or standing. Before moving my
attention to the rear wheel (which is where it sounds like it comes from anyway) I had checked and
lubed (or replaced) BB, pedals, cleats, chainring bolts, seatpost, saddle rails, chain, sprockets
(on the hub), and dropouts. Then I had the illuminating idea of borrowing a friend's wheel - creaks
disappeared instantly. Since then I have dripped oil down the spoke nipples (and also onto the hub
ends of the spokes) and checked the spoke crossing points. All to no avail. So now I'm moving on to
the hub - hence my question.

Oh, and it's an OCLV frame so I think frame cracks are unlikely - not that I haven't checked
for them...

The sound is a definite rhythmical cracking/creaking, not a squeak. And the weirdest thing is that
it stops instantly if I shift gear, only to come back again within 10-15 secs. It's embarrassingly
loud, so much so that I now change gear just before I pass other riders, to give myself that period
of relative silence (bar my gasping) before the racket starts up again.

So now you know :-) Any ideas for things I haven't tried would be extremely welcome. I've more or
less run out.

--
Tony

"Michael Dart" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Are the holes where the skewer goes through hex shaped like Chris King

hubs?

Thanks, but no, they're quite round, ISTR (don't have it here right now). I'm sure I would have
noticed that...

--
Tony

I've solved creaking in some Rolf hubs by greasing the threads on the drive ring. You can see it in
the hub shell after you take off the cassette (see Keith's excellent description), but it requires a
special tool to unscrew. Pedaling tightens it.

"Tony Eva" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"kapers" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:q%o9b.12751$Cu3.9516@edtnps84...

Quoted message said:

[ ... long and very useful stuff snipped ... ]

Thanks Keith, that is very helpful. I don't have the hub right here in front of me so I can't try
it right now; but if I understand you, it just basically pulls apart? That hadn't occurred to me
at all :-)

Quoted message said:

Now, could you tell us under what conditions the wheel creaks?

Well, I didn't want to bore the group with yet another "my bike creaks" story, but since you
asked, here goes... :-)

It occurs under heavy load (normally when I am going uphill, though hard pedalling on the flat can
produce it), in sync with the cadence.

It occurs in all gears, and both chainrings, when I'm sitting or standing. Before moving my
attention to the rear wheel (which is where it sounds like it comes from anyway) I had checked and
lubed (or replaced) BB, pedals, cleats, chainring bolts, seatpost, saddle rails, chain, sprockets
(on the hub), and dropouts. Then I had the illuminating idea of borrowing a friend's wheel -
creaks disappeared instantly. Since then I have dripped oil down the spoke nipples (and also onto
the hub ends of the spokes) and checked the spoke crossing points. All to no avail. So now I'm
moving on to the hub - hence my question.

Oh, and it's an OCLV frame so I think frame cracks are unlikely - not that I haven't checked
for them...

The sound is a definite rhythmical cracking/creaking, not a squeak. And the weirdest thing is that
it stops instantly if I shift gear, only to come back again within 10-15 secs. It's embarrassingly
loud, so much so that I now change gear just before I pass other riders, to give myself that
period of relative silence (bar my gasping) before the racket starts up again.

So now you know :-) Any ideas for things I haven't tried would be extremely welcome. I've more or
less run out.

"Tony Eva" wrote...

Quoted message said:

Well, I didn't want to bore the group with yet another "my bike creaks" story, but since you
asked, here goes... :-)

[ ... snip ...]

For the benefit of Googlers looking for an answer to their creaking bike problems: the hub
disassembly and greasing sorted the problem out. Now I have a lovely silent bike again, at long
last. Thanks to all for their help.

--
Tony