Issue #1
On my last few rides, usually after a drop, I've heard what sounds like a stick pinging in my rear spokes. The first few times I'd stop to take a look, but find nothing to explain the sound. I'd get back on the bike, and the sound would be gone, but it might come back again later after another drop. Today, I had the wheel off to re-grease the bearings (see Issue #2) and found some pretty beat up spokes when I took off the cassette:
When descending, I usually have the chain on my biggest ring and my biggest cog so it isn't slapping around so much. I assume the spoke damage is from my chain falling between the cassette and the spokes before it somehow jumps back onto the biggest cog. Is this happening because the shock compression is adding enough slack that the chain is falling behind the cog? Would keeping the chain on the second to last cog be the solution to prevent this, or is there something else (shorter chain) I should be looking at? I checked the limit screw on the derailleur, and I wasn't able to shift the chain past the big cog.
Related to this, should there be only two rivets on the back of the cassette, or have one or more been pulled out?
Issue #2
While cleaning my drivetrain, I noticed an unusual noise coming out of the rear hub. I assumed it was the bearings, so took everything apart and re-greased. While the bearings were out, I discovered that the noise (which seems very bearing-like) is coming from the freehub. Could whatever this is be related to Issue #1? You can see above that there was enough force at some point to bend one of the spokes. Could it have also damaged the freehub? Can I ride until I get the freehub repaired/replaced, or do I need to worry about it suddenly locking up when whatever is making the noise fully fails?
The bike is a Norco Fluid 7.3 with two summers (just over 100 hours) of riding on it, mostly on Seymour. Wanting to figure out if I can prevent these issues from reoccurring before I do some catastrophic damage.
I'll be taking it to BicycleHub ASAP, but thought I'd seek some input from the collective first.
Thanks!
Last edited by: PaulB on June 10, 2018, 8:33 p.m., edited 1 time in total.