Freecoaster hubs

[auburn88]

Hi all, I'm fairly new to this forum, but have been riding off and on for 25+ years. Really just getting back into it after a looong break.

The freecoaster that came on my 2014 Ares Ashura complete has some left/right play in the wheel. I've taken it apart and it just doesn't seem to get any tighter. Is this common with the freecoaster hubs or just mine?

And whether or not I decide to replace this hub, I want to build up another set of wheels for another bike I'm working on. What freecoaster hubs would you recommend I check out, and you've had good luck with?

[DaddyCool]

Hi,
I have no experience with the Ares hub. As an alternative you could choose the Nankai which was very popular some year ago because it works good as long as it is properly adjusted, you need some experience...
The KHE ones are easier to maintain and also work very good in my opinion. Federal, Alienation and others offer hubs with the KHE internals.
Recently hubs which are based on a cassette came on the market. For example Ezra and WTP freecoasters work like this.
I suggest to search the forum, you will find many discussions...
Good luck.

[SaschaB.]

The freecoaster that came on my 2014 Ares Ashura complete has some left/right play in the wheel. I've taken it apart and it just doesn't seem to get any tighter. Is this common with the freecoaster hubs or just mine?

And whether or not I decide to replace this hub, I want to build up another set of wheels for another bike I'm working on. What freecoaster hubs would you recommend I check out, and you've had good luck with?

Hey,

at first, sorry about my bad english! I'm not that pretty good as german.......
The problem you describe with your Ares coaster is a general problem on all coasters which including complete sealed bearings and it has to do with the quality of the the manufacturing in general. You could buy yourself 10 Ares or also KHE internal-Coasters and some would work thight without any left/right play in the bearing and others could have play-problems.

But there is a way to help your self adjusting the bearing clearance of these sealed bearing coasters.
Open the hub and take out the axle. You will need a turning-lathe or someone can do this work for you.

The problem can be solved by reducing the bearings contact surfaces of your axle   (bearings = []  and axle = --------- ).    from this " ---[]l------l[]--- "   to that  " ---[]l----l[]--- ", by reduce the spacing between the bearings for about 0.5mm to 1mm on one side. I did this on some coasters by my self to solve this problem with playing hubs and it worked out excellent. But be very carefull not to machining off too much material. 1 mm should be absolutely enough.

Hope that will be helpfull for you! Good Luck for you!!
Greets, Sascha

[auburn88]

Thanks for your inputs. I have a cassette type hub on another bike and find it's noise annoying, and read that the new freecoaster/cassette hubs make noise too when they engage. I really like the silence of the freecoaster-only so will probably look at those options.

[Generationbmx]

Same problem here on my 2014 Ashura. I have noticed this same problem with other freecoaster wheels as well. Great information from the oer reply up top. I will have to consider that fix ir I may just continue riding on the wheels knowing that its a common problem.

[garrettpatton]

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