Freewheel vs Sprag

[@nevamind932]

Very Interesting, i enjoy your videos, Aloha from Hawaii!

[@chimerabmx]

Aloha! And thank you.

[@RussellHogan]

Aloha. I am also from Hawaii. You thinking about getting one?

[@nevamind932]

@@RussellHogan I don't think they ship to Hawaii

[@eliudjuarez700]

What happens if a sprag breaks?

[@chimerabmx]

They rarely break. If they receive too much force, they fold over. In that case, you pull the 10t off and reset the sprags. So far it hasn't happened on the bikes.

[@jeffryLebovsky]

it is not instantaneous engagement, you forgot to mention that it gives a spongy feeling when engages which feels wierd after classic paw mechanisms. and there is no difference in free stroke between sprag and classic systems with paws if last one have more than 120 points of engagement.

[@chimerabmx]

@@jeffryLebovskyWhat sprag product did you use that felt spongy? Onyx Racing hubs offer instant and perfectly stiff engagement. Our setup does as well. Maybe the product you were using had sprags that weren't suited for the torque. Interested to know.

[@jeffryLebovsky]

@@chimerabmx it was onyx vesper. can`t say that it was unridable or it was bad, it just felt weird. and compared to, for example, rf vault or any other 6 paw hub (100+ engagement points) onyx definitely had more flex. You are saying that it has "perfectly stiff engagement" but can`t agree with that at all. Sprag hubs are pretty heavy and pricy. The only bebefit of sprag is silence in my opinion. And it is the only reason people buy it, because classic hubs are annoyingly noisy. It will be interesting to see how sprag performs in trial, we need danny macaskill or fabio wibmer to test it))

[@chimerabmx]

​@@jeffryLebovskyInteresting you mention the Vesper. It uses a combo of 432Z and 432Z2 sprag. The Z is a 12mm but the Z2 is only 7mm wide, and can't handle as much torque. That's part of how they're able to make that hub lighter. By contrast, their other MTB hubs use a double 432Z system, which is substantially stronger. Try one sometime and see if you still feel a sponginess. For our purposes, noise is definitely an issue. Having a motor system with two pawel engagements together with the rear hub would sound like churning gravel 😂. But also we're well below the torque load spec for the pawls we use on the motor. So it feels stiff and instant for this use-case.

[@jeffryLebovsky]

@@chimerabmx as i said earlier it is not a big problem, i think i can quickly get used to that. It was my first opinion when i tried it on my friends bike. onyx hubs are not very popular in my country, my friend had to pay about 1k usd for hub set and wait it for about 3 month. but silence.... it is something underrated, felt fantastic after my chainsaw sounding hub) hope i will try onyx classic heavy variant one day.