I prefer tighter engaging hubs. This gets proven out every time I switch the roadie's wheels out from winter to summer weights. The summer wheels have about 10d of action, and that bang of the pawls engaging riding over potholes/roots/rocks while still pedaling just bothers the heck outta my aesthetic sensibilities.
But that's superficial.
The real reason I prefer quicker pick up is in past times working in shops and the industry, I noticed that slower hubs tended to have more ratchet/pawl/freehub failures. My thinking is that the looser the engagement, the harder the contact the pawl makes with the ratchet in certain scenarios. Think of it as taking a 16oz hammer, raise it up a .25", and then drop it on your thumb. Ouch is a maybe. Now take that hammer and raise it 2" and do the same. That very well may smart a bit. The tighter the engagement, the less uninhibited momentum buildup there is before the pawl interfaces with the ratchet. The lighter the impact force, the more stable the whole system is. I think you'll notice that slower engaging hubs will tend to bear witness marks from contacting the ratchet ring. Granted, internal bearing placement between the hubshell and the freehub also plays into that.
At some point I do want a set of either Onyx or Box clutch hubs. The silence is golden, the engagement the tightest, and if it means hoping on the OChain train for the susser, I'm ok with that.
May 15, 2023, 7:14 a.m. - JT
I prefer tighter engaging hubs. This gets proven out every time I switch the roadie's wheels out from winter to summer weights. The summer wheels have about 10d of action, and that bang of the pawls engaging riding over potholes/roots/rocks while still pedaling just bothers the heck outta my aesthetic sensibilities. But that's superficial. The real reason I prefer quicker pick up is in past times working in shops and the industry, I noticed that slower hubs tended to have more ratchet/pawl/freehub failures. My thinking is that the looser the engagement, the harder the contact the pawl makes with the ratchet in certain scenarios. Think of it as taking a 16oz hammer, raise it up a .25", and then drop it on your thumb. Ouch is a maybe. Now take that hammer and raise it 2" and do the same. That very well may smart a bit. The tighter the engagement, the less uninhibited momentum buildup there is before the pawl interfaces with the ratchet. The lighter the impact force, the more stable the whole system is. I think you'll notice that slower engaging hubs will tend to bear witness marks from contacting the ratchet ring. Granted, internal bearing placement between the hubshell and the freehub also plays into that. At some point I do want a set of either Onyx or Box clutch hubs. The silence is golden, the engagement the tightest, and if it means hoping on the OChain train for the susser, I'm ok with that.