(my apologies if you already saw this elsewhere)
In the beginning:
A little more than a month ago I got rear wheel built with the Exciter 6 Drive hub by Halo. It has six double point pawls seated in the hub body with 30 teeth in the freehub body. I didn't get to weigh it because I ordered it in a built wheel, but Halo claims 330g with the alloy cassette body that mine had. Fit and finish was nice with a bronze anno on the cassette body, good looking seal system and Japanese sealed bearings so they immediately went on my Sultan.
The Hub
Pawl system
All was good:
On the trail the engagement felt quick, not I9 quick but not sluggish like some WTB or XT wheels I had ridden previously. They were surprisingly quiet too which was a bonus. My other option was going to be a Hope hub (which I chose for the front due to all the axle options) but the Hope has to be one of the loudest rear hubs I'd ever heard. They were smooth spinning with no play and did not require any adjustment over the last 7 weeks.
Things go bad:
On my ride Sunday I started to notice some slipping like the chain was skipping. I inspected the drive train and found no issue. It happened more on the ride - I started to fear the worst - total hub drive failure (it's happened to me twice with XT hubs). I was able to finish the ride but it kept skipping/slipping intermitantly throughout the ride. I started to disassemble it tonight with out any type of tech info as Halo has none published and google provided nothing. The end caps came off with 5mm hex wrenches which exposed the 10mm hex flats inside the axle. I inserted 2 wrenches and tried to turn it - nothing. So I tried a bit harder. Crack, the wrench broke out of the side of the axle! ok....now what? Lots of banging, pliers and hammers forced the freehub body off the axle reveling the damaged tooth that was the root of my problem.
Now What?:
I need a new axle and a new freehub body so I go back to the Halo site and look up the US distributor. The link leads me to BTI and I start browsing their inventory of spares hub parts. Guess what? No parts for the 6 drive. Call is put in to Red Barn - we'll see.
The silver lining:
The hub seems to be very well sealed. There was not even a spec of dirt inside any of the bearings on in the drive mechanism. The bearings were still smooth and still had grease in them.
That's it for now
In the beginning:
A little more than a month ago I got rear wheel built with the Exciter 6 Drive hub by Halo. It has six double point pawls seated in the hub body with 30 teeth in the freehub body. I didn't get to weigh it because I ordered it in a built wheel, but Halo claims 330g with the alloy cassette body that mine had. Fit and finish was nice with a bronze anno on the cassette body, good looking seal system and Japanese sealed bearings so they immediately went on my Sultan.
The Hub
Pawl system
All was good:
On the trail the engagement felt quick, not I9 quick but not sluggish like some WTB or XT wheels I had ridden previously. They were surprisingly quiet too which was a bonus. My other option was going to be a Hope hub (which I chose for the front due to all the axle options) but the Hope has to be one of the loudest rear hubs I'd ever heard. They were smooth spinning with no play and did not require any adjustment over the last 7 weeks.
Things go bad:
On my ride Sunday I started to notice some slipping like the chain was skipping. I inspected the drive train and found no issue. It happened more on the ride - I started to fear the worst - total hub drive failure (it's happened to me twice with XT hubs). I was able to finish the ride but it kept skipping/slipping intermitantly throughout the ride. I started to disassemble it tonight with out any type of tech info as Halo has none published and google provided nothing. The end caps came off with 5mm hex wrenches which exposed the 10mm hex flats inside the axle. I inserted 2 wrenches and tried to turn it - nothing. So I tried a bit harder. Crack, the wrench broke out of the side of the axle! ok....now what? Lots of banging, pliers and hammers forced the freehub body off the axle reveling the damaged tooth that was the root of my problem.
Now What?:
I need a new axle and a new freehub body so I go back to the Halo site and look up the US distributor. The link leads me to BTI and I start browsing their inventory of spares hub parts. Guess what? No parts for the 6 drive. Call is put in to Red Barn - we'll see.
The silver lining:
The hub seems to be very well sealed. There was not even a spec of dirt inside any of the bearings on in the drive mechanism. The bearings were still smooth and still had grease in them.
That's it for now
