The story continues.
The first ride with the new freehub was fine until I was more than 30 miles into it. This was typical of the mooing -- I would generally have at least 15-20 miles of quiet riding and then the problem would start to happen. But the second ride with the new freehub, yesterday, was much worse. The mooing started on the first decent downhill, early in the ride, and happened often throughout the entire 58 mile ride. And whereas before I would feel a vibration in my hands, yesterday the whole bike was shaking. Not good.
Between these two rides I looked again at some of the online videos and discussions of this problem, which people have had with Mavic wheels for more than 10 years. There was no consensus on how to make the noise go away for good.
Today I took the bike back to the LBS. The mechanic who worked on it last week was there. I played one of the videos for him (which I should have done the last time I brought it in). He put the bike on an indoor trainer, turned the pedal by hand to get the wheel going fast, and was able to recreate the moo. Several other people who work at the shop heard it and came over, and they discussed likely causes for the noise. Then the mechanic took the new freehub out and examined everything. He found that the pawls showed signs of wear, as did other parts in the hub that can't be replaced. He recommended that I get a new wheel.
So the Mavic will moo no more, because it is being replaced. I am only replacing the rear wheel, because the front is still okay. I got this wheel set in August or September of 2014, and my rough estimate is that I've ridden about 7000 miles on them.
The bike shop is refunding the cost of the new freehub to me, since it didn't solve the problem, and applying it to the cost of the new rear wheel. Which will be a Shimano. No more Mavic for me -- I was perfectly happy with them until the mooing started, but would prefer a wheel that lasts longer.
Last edited by ny biker; 09-23-2018 at 05:00 PM.
- Gray 2010 carbon WSD road bike, Rivet Independence saddle
- Red hardtail 26" aluminum mountain bike, Bontrager Evoke WSD saddle
- Royal blue 2018 aluminum gravel bike, Rivet Pearl saddle
Gone but not forgotten:
- Silver 2003 aluminum road bike
- Two awesome worn out Juliana saddles