loud hubs:noise or music to your ears?

[MORNE]

thats a lot of free-wheeling

If you have time to worry about how noisy your freehub is you are going too slow

[Chadvdw67]

I totally get that the frequency of the noise will increase since the # of teeth goes from 18 to 54 (more teeth to join the party ) per one revolution. The amplitude however should decrease since the 54T is not as "deep" as the 18T -> less time/distance to accelerate -> less noise per tooth.

 

The combined effect must then be worse, more little noises surpass less loud noises .

I am pretty sure they put a stronger spring behind each ratchet for those exact reasons, a friend of mine has the 54T ratchet in his 350 hubs, they are pretty loud, but it is a good sound

[Mtree]

Just put a 6 pawl freehub body in the powertap hub, huge difference compared to a 3 pawl!
Much louder, sounds much better out on the trails, also a subtle reminder that I'm not pedaling  .

[TheoG]

I am pretty sure they put a stronger spring behind each ratchet for those exact reasons, a friend of mine has the 54T ratchet in his 350 hubs, they are pretty loud, but it is a good sound

 

The upgrade kit comes with new springs.  I will definitely compare the spring stiffness with my current ones when I get the new ones.

[Meezo]

[bertusras]

 

 

“Man On Bicycle Chased By Swarm Of Aggressive Bees”

[DR ◣◢]

In this case a silent hub would make this video better. The angry bees sound clashes too much with the environmental sounds. 

[T_Boss]

Sometimes a loud hub sounds really cool, but its cool on a well shot MTB video, which last about 3 minutes, and the hub noise is part of the entire acoustic package, edited perfectly to create drama.

 

But in the real world I really want my bike as silent as possible. We do a lot of riding in game reserves, including proper big 5 areas. Buzzing freehubs seriously makes getting good sightings a pain in the arse

[TheoG]

54T is louder, I did this upgrade .

 

True you are spot on, got it fitted today and "agree bees" is not the word, it is substantially louder than the 18T.  I guess the higher frequency is far less tolerable to our ears.

 

P.S. I checked the springs supplied with 18T vs supplied with 54T and they are exactly the same, I reused the old ones since they are still 100%.

[ByronH]

Sometimes a loud hub sounds really cool, but its cool on a well shot MTB video, which last about 3 minutes, and the hub noise is part of the entire acoustic package, edited perfectly to create drama.

 

But in the real world I really want my bike as silent as possible. We do a lot of riding in game reserves, including proper big 5 areas. Buzzing freehubs seriously makes getting good sightings a pain in the arse

 

Completely agree with you..

 

My hubs are a "little clicky' - American Classics. And I quite like it that way... enough sound to warn people around me that I'm there, but not so loud that I sound like a fisherman reeling in a marlin in rough seas... (try get that image out your head next time you watch a Brandon Semenuk Raw video  )