Hello everyone,
I ride a Brompton C Line, 6 speed, on a daily basis and keep having problems with the freewheel. I now have the second hub (guarantee) exchangeand don't understand what the problem is. At first I always think that the problem lies with me, but I'm starting to get confused. The Brompton ist 1.5 years old and I really love riding it.
After the first few rides in the rain, I noticed that my freewheel was becoming increasingly sluggish and the chain was sagging badly. I have now understood that this is normal in gear 3-2 (6). This is where the resistance of the hub is at its highest. However, it got so bad that the chain regularly jumped off because it had so little tension. The dealer then sent me a new hub, which I fitted and everything went great. Now it's winter and I've been caught in heavy rain twice. After that it was so bad again that I couldn't turn the pedals backwards even in gear 1-1, the freewheel just felt like it had too much resistance.
Today I removed the wheel, cleaned everything and reinstalled it. Of course everything with a torque wrench and 22nm at the rear, chain tensioner 8nm. I can hardly oil the chain because the wheel can't turn backwards.
I take great care of the bike, clean it regularly, oil the chain etc.
What am I doing wrong? Attached you will find a video of me trying to turn the chain backwards, the chain is also sagging while riding.
I got a bunch of other bikes, non with a hub gear, but never had any trouble maintaining my bikes.
by felixtheelix
1 Comment
Not sure of the issue here but I would start by checking if the hub/wheel nuts are not overly tightened, putting too much pressure on bearings.