loud hubs:noise or music to your ears?

[Vetseun]

I trained under the mentorship of Johan 'Velle' Potgieter many years ago.

The man was and still is a multiple Rapport tour rider. Back in the day when racing was hard and merciless.

Velle would train you under two conditions.

1) Your free hub must be silent.

2) Your bottle may not be made of clear plastic.

According to Velle, a wise cyclist will listen to your hub when the hammer is down and determine if you are skipping pedal strokes and thus fading and plan his strategy accordingly during the race.

And what is happening in your bottle is your business and your business alone. Dont let them see how much you are drinking.

Never throw your cards on the table.

Today I love the sound of a freehub that sounds like deep sea fishing real when a sailfish hits your lure.

[Kranswurm]

I trained under the mentorship of Johan 'Velle' Potgieter many years ago.

The man was and still is a multiple Rapport tour rider. Back in the day when racing was hard and merciless.

Velle would train you under two conditions.

1) Your free hub must be silent.

2) Your bottle may not be made of clear plastic.

According to Velle, a wise cyclist will listen to your hub when the hammer is down and determine if you are skipping pedal strokes and thus fading and plan his strategy accordingly during the race.

And what is happening in your bottle is your business and your business alone. Dont let them see how much you are drinking.

Never throw your cards on the table.

Today I love the sound of a freehub that sounds like deep sea fishing real when a sailfish hits your lure.

wtf

[NotSoBigBen]

I trained under the mentorship of Johan 'Velle' Potgieter many years ago.

The man was and still is a multiple Rapport tour rider. Back in the day when racing was hard and merciless.

Velle would train you under two conditions.

1) Your free hub must be silent.

2) Your bottle may not be made of clear plastic.

According to Velle, a wise cyclist will listen to your hub when the hammer is down and determine if you are skipping pedal strokes and thus fading and plan his strategy accordingly during the race.

And what is happening in your bottle is your business and your business alone. Dont let them see how much you are drinking.

Never throw your cards on the table.

Today I love the sound of a freehub that sounds like deep sea fishing real when a sailfish hits your lure.

*makes note of clear bottle advice*

[Pikey]

A mate of mine has a set of sram roam 60’s with sram roam hubs ( not sure what internals) holy sh,te is it loud....it’s louder than my i9. Sounds like a massive deep sea fishing reel,love it .

[Pikey]

*makes note of clear bottle advice*

Don’t you have to use bottles first ????

[Pieter1]

After my Superstar hubs were serviced they were silent. So lekker just to hear the trail. I need to make a plan with my Spank hubs to get them quite.

[NotSoBigBen]

Don’t you have to use bottles first [emoji102]

Touche! But for those all day rides ....

[DR ◣◢]

Loud hubs save lives.

 

A quiet bike is a fast bike.

 

Difficult to choose but I do like my swarm of angry Africanized bees that follow me around wherever I go.

[Zebra]

Not a fan, not on mountain bikes anyways, jinking through the trees, only to hear a mates free hub, LOUD! but each to their own!

[Paul Ruinaard]

Reminds me of having a big fish on that is taking line off you and making the reel scream, I like it! My Campag road hubs sometimes get the odd stare from the mimes , but I still like the noise. I also like the old cashregister type "caatjching" sound when the Campy shifts!

20 year old Record on my Colnago shifts in one solid clunk. But hubs that sound like a swarm of bees make me happy, especially on a long downhill on a Saturday morning ride down the fist big descent

Edited October 4, 2020 by Paul Ruinaard

[Kranswurm]

A mate of mine has a set of sram roam 60’s with sram roam hubs ( not sure what internals) holy sh,te is it loud....it’s louder than my i9. Sounds like a massive deep sea fishing reel,love it .

I had a pair of Industry Nines and hated the noise

[Chadvdw67]

I like both quite and louder hubs, obnoxiously loud hubs are tedious though, it's only fun for so long, then it just becomes draining and distracting

[Bateleur1]

I have DTSwiss hubs on my road bike which was quite loud in my opinion but never used to bother me too much.  My dogs liked it as they could here me comming home from a mile away.  Also was usefull on our cycleways when I approached slower traffic.   I would just stop peddaling and then people would move out of the way.

 

But about 3 months ago I pulled off the freebody by accident and used the time to clean out the hub and inspect its inner workings.  When putting all back I did not have the normal special DTSwiss freehub grease so I just put normal grease in there which is considerably thicker.  I just put very little on and distributed it with a little brush.  My hubs are so much more silent.  I actually like hearing more of nature now.

[Headshot]

Too much of a good thing is not good. I like my Rapide rear hub because it is quite loud, but not so loud that it drowns the sound of my tyres scrabbling for grip. A happy medium IMO. 

[Nico van Loggerenberg]

I live near a very popular road for both MTB and road cycling, and have been woken up early in the mornings by swarms of riders with obnoxiously loud hubs. To get over the noise of the hubs, they need to shout at the top of their lungs at each other, and you end up with something around the decibel level of a malfunctioning diesel truck.

 

It reminds me of car guys who modify their exhausts for maximum noise, because what you personally like hearing is more important than anybody else's peace of mind. I'll never understand those people. 

[MrJacques]

I'd like to have a silent hub, but then I'd probably start hearing all the other rattles on my bike.