Clicking & creaking Ambrosio Zenith hub

[geomannie]

Hi All

After about 100miles my new self-built bike developed one of those irritating intermittent ticks, which over the next couple or 300 miles progressed to a medley of noises, from silent passages, to slowing rhythmic ticking, to rapid ticking, rising to a creaking crescendo (I exaggerate but it’s my new bike). I checked/tightened/dis/assembled all the usual suspects, chain ring, BB, seat/post etc. After tearing my hair out I swapped in another rear wheel and found that this was the culprit. Why didn't I try that first?

I had built the wheel using an Ambrosio Zenith hub and on putting the wheel on the truing stand it feel smooth but when I turn it slowly i seem to a faint creak as it turns. This hub has done less than 400miles so this is very disappointing. My questions are as follows:

*Has anyone else had experience of creaking Ambrosio Zenith hubs?
*Would the creaking be the bearings or the freehub? How would I tell other than swapping them out?
*If the hub is faulty, how do I complain to the vendor? It’s in the wheel and to rebuild is a monumental faff.

Grateful for thoughts.

[NUKe]

Clean your dropouts. I had similar with an Ambrosio solved with a 1/4 turn on the quick release.

[Brucey]

I'd do what I'd do anyway, which is to strip the hub down and remove the inner seals from each bearing and fill the hub (and the space between the freehub bearings) with SFG. These hubs don't last that long in our glorious weather with the standard arrangement which appears to use a tiny amount of poor quality grease in the bearings. The bearings can be checked when you are removing the seals. Probably you will need to do this sooner or later anyway, if you want the hub to last.

Note also that in many such hubs the bearings can be adjusted/destroyed by altering the locknut settings. If the locknuts are loose then the bearings could see almost any load in service and could quite quickly fail; ~100 miles would be plenty. BTW the correct bearing adjustment settings cannot be established in a loose hub, because the hubshell moves slightly as the wheel is built.

The good news is that whatever problems you have can almost certainly be resolved with ten quid's worth of new bearings and some fettling.

Before you do anything else, check that the cassette lockring is still tight; IIRC you may have an aluminium freehub body and this can soon wear and make all kinds of weird noised in the process.

cheers

[geomannie]

Thanks folks. Dropouts are fine.

I take some comfort from Brucey's comments about checking/replacing the bearings. It never occurred to me to check the locknut settings after the wheel was built so this may be the cause of possible bearing failure.

I am now wondering why I decided on the Ambrosio hubs. I have used Shimano Tiagra and 105 hubs for years and in my experience they are solid and with maintenance are near bullet-proof.

Cheers

[Valbrona]

Sometimes it is not until you have replaced the bearings that you find one or two ridiculously loose spokes.