GCN Tech Clinic: Quiet hubs, bike storage and road pedals

Back for another round of bike and tech-related questions, Manon Lloyd joins Tech Clinic regular Alex Paton to answer all of your queries.

This week, our dynamic duo explain how to care for a bike over winter, especially if you store your bike in a cold or damp setting, before revisiting a GCN Tech show favourite: chain waxing.

Why is my rear hub silent when I freewheel?

Some freehubs make a lot of noise when you coast, whereas others barely make a sound. Some of this is to do with the type of hub that you have. Ratchet hubs tend to make more noise than pawl hubs because there is more surface area to create noise.

Beyond this, the main factor that affects the sound your hub makes is the spring tension inside the hub. The higher the tension, the more it is going to force the pawls onto the surface of the hub, which in turn will make more noise.

If your hub has got quieter over time, this can be because grit and grime have got into the hub and have made the springs sticky. The best way to return your freehub to its former glory is to give it a good service, cleaning out any contamination and reassembling it with some light freehub grease.

How can I safely store a bike in a cold garage?

Firstly, make sure that you are storing the bike in a clean and dry state. Because of the environment you are storing it in, anything wet will not dry out and can start to rust, corrode, or, in the case of saddles and bar tape, turn mouldy. Giving the bike a clean and then drying it with a towel or even a hair dryer will help to prevent this.

Similarly, it is good practice to make sure that all of the components that should be lubricated are done so before the bike is stored. This will act as a barrier and prevent any corrosion from building up overnight.

The final piece of advice is less practical and more expensive, but it is a firm favourite of GCN's Ollie Bridgewood. If you want to control the damp in the garage, you can use a dehumidifier. This will remove any moisture from the air and make the environment far less conducive to mould or rusting. This is expensive and will only work if you have access to power in your garage, but it is a worthy consideration.

Is a waxed chain better than oil for riding around town?

This depends on what you are looking for from both your riding and your lubricant. If you are looking for the quickest and easiest solution, an oil-based lube will be the best option. It is easy to apply and you can clean it up with some degreaser and warm water.

Waxed chains sit at the performance end of bike maintenance, providing better drivetrain efficiency and a slower rate of wear. Another benefit of wax over oil for urban riding is that it dries, meaning you won’t get any oil stains on your trousers.

It depends on how much this means to you as to whether the effort of waxing your chain is worth it or not, but for us, oil lube is the best solution for getting around town.

Read more: Easy and effective on-the-bike chain cleaning

Can I use a hairdryer to dry my bike?

You can. A hairdryer is something most households have and it can be a great way to dry your bike after washing it, especially if it is cold and damp. However, hairdryers can get very hot so it's best to use it in a cooler setting while being careful not to get it too close to the bike.

Another thing that you can use instead of a hairdryer is a computer component duster. These are little battery-operated devices that blow room-temperature air to clean components on computers. We have it on good authority from Alex Paton that they do double up nicely as a bike drying tool too.

Can I run two wheelsets with different size cassettes on them on the same bike?

This is becoming a popular trend with all-road and gravel bikes, where it can be useful to have two wheelsets for two different riding styles. If you are looking to run a wide-range gravel cassette and a narrower road cassette, you need to set the bike up for the wider-range cassette. So long as both cassettes are at the same speed, you should not run into any issues doing this.

The most important thing to get right is the chain length; you want to make sure it is long enough to accommodate all of the gears but no longer than it needs to be. When it comes to using the wheels with the narrower cassette, you will have to accept that the chain is a little bit longer than would be optimal but it should not affect performance.

What is the benefit of road SPD pedals and shoes compared to mountain bike SPD pedals and shoes?

Road SPDs use a far larger pedal-cleat-shoe interface. The idea behind this is that it gives you a larger surface area to spread the load, meaning that you should get fewer pressure points on the shoe. In reality, the stiffer the sole of the shoe, the less this is going to come into effect.

Read more: Road or MTB pedals: which should you choose?

The other benefit of the larger cleat and pedal system is the lateral stability it offers riders. Because the cleat takes up almost the whole width of the shoe, it means that the side-to-side stability it provides is far higher than that of a smaller cleat that the mountain bike system uses. This means that for high-intensity efforts, you have a more secure feeling in the pedal.

Although there are differences between the systems, we would say that, as far as things go on the bike, these are relatively small. If you are currently using mountain bike SPD shoes and pedals and are happy with them, we wouldn’t recommend changing as there are certainly better things to spend your money on upgrading.

If you have any tech-related questions that you need answering, head over to this week’s Tech Clinic video on the GCN Tech YouTube channel and add your question to the comments along with #ASKGCNTECH. Or leave your question in the comments below.