Free wheel ratchet stopped working, but I love the silence.

[marka-ee]

One of my bikes with the direct drive motor has suddenly stopped making the clicking sound when you are not pedaling. It was still able to engage to be able to pedal, but it would have a delay or have a couple of spins before the engagement happened. The main thing I am wanting to comment on here is that I love the silence of the ratchet, which apparently has failed mostly. Is there any way to silence a normal freewheel so that it's almost imperceptible as far as the clicking sound? The clicking sound is actually rather annoying now that I think about it.

 

[scianiac]

I have had similar thoughts, previously I took it apart and filled with with very thick grease which does make it much quieter for awhile but does eventually seem to lose some effectiveness. I used NLGI #2 so you could probably go even thicker as that didn't seem to effect the engagement at all even when cold. A sprag clutch would obviously be a better solution but would need to adapt it. Depending on how it is setup you could also remove all but 1 pawl. That is if it's the type that only 1 pawl is engaged at any one time, or even if more than one is normally engaged maybe you aren't applying that much torque. I also considered other modifications to the ratchet to maybe make it quieter but I think I'm just going to remove the pawls. It's not like I pedal anyway.