Donwill

Hi, im a bit of a noob but im about to build a road bike. Im thinking of buying hunt wheels 50mm. Mostly for the aesthetics, however they seem to be very loud. Is it possible to buy dt swiss hubs to replace the hunt ones? Thanks

KerryIrons

Are you talking about taking the wheels apart and rebuilding them with a different hub? Are the hub dimensions the same or will you need new spokes? From the nature of your question, you would need to tell us whether you have the skills and experience to rebuild a wheel, or whether you are willing to spend the money to have a bike shop/wheel builder do it. It generally makes more sense to buy the wheel you want rather than to start swapping hubs on brand new wheels.

Iride01 

Make sure you know which model of DTSwiss free hub is quiet. I always thought DTSwiss' claim to fame was the annoyingly loud and unique noise their FH made. Though occasionally I do see some like you claiming they have a quiet FH.

Welcome to BF.

Donwill

not sure what im looking for to be honest. But if there is an option to just swap out the part that makes the clicking sound when free rolling that be great. But i suspect it’s like you say that I need to swap out the whole hub and possible spokes as well. And yes the idea was that I will do it myself.

Donwill

you might be absolutely right, DT might be noisy as well. Thanks for the welcoming!

Koyote

That's a bad idea: expensive, will void the wheels' warranty, will probably necessitate new spokes...It's just silly and wasteful. Just buy wheels with the hubs you want.

For what it's worth, I have two sets of DT 350 hubs and don't find them particularly noisy. Few hubs are silent.

Iride01 

Until I got my Tarmac, all my previous bikes had quiet freewheels and free hubs. I didn't like the noisy free hub on my new Tarmac and considered new wheel or hub/freehub. But you only hear it if you coast. So just think of it as a reminder to keep your legs pedaling. I've gotten use to it. But if I ever have reason to replace the wheels, a quiet FH will be in the criteria for buying them. Though since I've gotten use to it, maybe not as high a priority as the other things.

Might just consider it a safety feature for others. If you come up behind someone walking, you'll probably be coasting. And maybe they'll hear your FH noise if they don't pay attention to any other audible warning you give. Might even give your cranks a good backpedal as you near them and scare the bejeezes out of them with the racket! <GRIN> (no I really wouldn't intentionally scare walkers, I walk the trails quite often and don't need the fright. But I do appreciate a audible warning so I know not to stick out my arm and point to something and clotheline the cyclist. Which has almost happened on more than one occasion.)

Still, maybe you'll get use to it too. And remember, don't coast so much!.

SoSmellyAir

Just buy wheels with the hubs you want, which will be less expensive and more foolproof.

Of all the wheelsets I have owned, the FFWD freehub (DT Swiss clone 36T ratchets) is the loudest, then Mavic FTS-L, then DT Swiss 350 (36T), then i9 1/1.

KerryIrons

One more thought is that if you put some grease on the freehub pawls (instead of the oil that is likely there) it will quiet the freehub considerably. In very cold weather the grease can thicken enough to prevent the pawls from engaging, but that is unlikely for the intended use you propose.

Russ Roth

I always thought they made kind of a buzzing noise like kings, which were loud by the standards of the late 90s when they came out, but compared to a lot of modern hubs they're fairly quiet. Cruising through the woods with a group you can barely make out the sound of the kings of DT 350s over the I9s, WI and Hope hubs with their high engagement and high number of pawls. I've noticed a number of factory wheels, particularly some of the ones from Specialized, have really loud freehubs due to the extra pawls. Carbon rims just seem to add to the echo.

cpach

So essentially, no, you cannot swap to a different freehub body without having the wheel entirely rebuilt around a new hub.

However, it's probably worth trying changing the lubricants used in the hub as that can have a pretty large impact on the sound of the hub. I use Dumonde Freehub Grease fairly often and it's quieter than most options. You could try lubricating the pawls with that or some other kind of slightly thicker lubricant--also, frankly, using more light grease will be quieter than less. Unless you have a good idea of what you're doing, it's going to be safer to use a light grease marketed towards this application. Too thick of a grease could cause your hub to fail to freewheel properly.

Kai Winters

DT Swiss hubs are not 'quiet'.
I have 240's on my Roval Alpinist wheels and the rear hub is 'angry bees'
Try servicing your current rear hub by removing all the old grease, thorough cleaning, then application of new grease with maybe a bit more. This will quiet the hub 'a bit' but won't make it silent.
I've done this with my wheel and it works...for a while...but not permanently.

SoSmellyAir

Prior version of 240 (same design as current 350) or newer 240 EXP?

Kai Winters

240 EXP...they are awesome wheels.

SoSmellyAir

I agree that Roval wheels are awesome. I bought the Terra CL for my gravel bike in early 2023.

Ryan_M

Yup! Love the DT240s (36t ratchet) on my MTB because I don't need a bell. People can hear me coming from a distance, pfft can probably hear me all the way in the parking lot. My hybrid has DT350s (18t ratchet) and they are the most quiet hubs I've ever heard, and really appreciate that for this application

Koyote

I've ridden those wheels over 4600 miles so far. Yup, they are very good.

grumpus

Better to find hubs you like the sound of and rims you like the look of, and build those into the wheels you want, rather than buying stuff you don't want. But if you can find factory wheels you like, that will often work out cheaper than a bespoke set.

Garthr

Onyx hubs are dead silent and about $485. Many Shimano are rather quiet, though some of the newer ones are made different from how they used to be and are now loud also. The more simple ones that use a screw in freehub body are very quiet. I can barely hear a Deore T-610 even indoors on the stand. They're quiet because the freehub bodies are totally enclosed units and independent from the hub body for their function, just like a freewheel. It wouldn't surprise me if they share some parts. I know that's quite a variation is pricing, but I don't know of any mid priced freehubs that are quiet. It's either high end or lower end. I've hear some hubs offer special noise reducing grease, well how about just making them quiet in the first place so one doesn't need to resort to costly "special grease ?" I know, I'm barking to the wind. That's why I still ride and prefer 7sp freewheel'd wheels for my most ridden bikes. They're quiet, relatively inexpensive, and I have plenty of freewheels in sizes I ride and there's more new ones available, still.

There's may sound checks for freehubs on the 'tube, here's one that shows the Onyx and many other popular models. As with all sound checks, they're usually done indoors on hard floor with a mic close by, so they can a bit louder than outside !

grumpus

My rando bike squeals loudly on application of the back brake; I find that when there are oblivious pedestrians meandering it catches their attention remarkably well. It's almost the only time I use the back brake on that bike.