Originally Posted by
KerryIrons
Is there maybe excess friction in the freehub such that when you backpedal it causes a lot of chain slack on the lower run of the chain? As a side note, most of the time when you reach speeds where you are spinning your biggest gear, you're likely going downhill and would be just as fast or faster to get into a tight tuck while you rest.
it spins very freely, or so it seems to me. doesn't produce any noticeable slack, but i'm no expert and will probably have the shop check it out.
the stretch in question is a very quick dip down and then back up (around 100' down at 8-10% and then a little uphill of about half as much after) which is quite straight so i do like to push it hard on both the downhill and uphill. i can't really remember if i actually backpedaled, or why i would have... but can't really think of another likely scenario.