SRAM XX Cassette - Terrible Creaking Sound Under Load!

[Landon]

I just thought I'd put this out there.

I swapped my XTR tranny for this wiz bang XX stuff two rides ago. There's a terrible creaking sound coming from the XX cassette when under load in all but the lowest three gears. It's pretty nuts.

This cassette drives the hub only by the 32 (or 36) tooth gear & by the individual 11 tooth 10th gear. There's a black aluminium spacer inside the cassette that's a pretty loose fit on my SLR hub. There's now noticeable wear on the inside of this black aluminium spacer after one race and a ride today.

Seriously, this cassette needs a drive spline under the 9th gear so it centres the cassette under load. It's obvious that the loose fit of the aluminium spacer under the higher gears is allowing for un-wanted movement. I'm going to try an aluminium can shim and more grease on my $600 cassette.

Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[harmonix1234]

Holy crap man that sounds horrible. Are you using a 9 speed chain? (probably a stupid question)

 

[rangie]

36 ?

this would be cos the 36 is putting an inordinate load on the hub/carrier when its prob not designed to take the load :-(

also prob 'cos it a mavic hub

 

[shaun7005]

Hey mate, i fixed this on a bike by taking the cassette off and greasing any contact points between the cassette and freehub body, hope this helps, let me know how you go...
Shaun

 

[HBR]

What about the Mavic- spacer?

should be on the hub, is about 1.5mm. You will ruin your cassette and driverbody if you ride with a loose cassette. The lockring applies more than 200kgf in axial direction (if assembled correctly with 40Nm). This force presses the single 11-tooth cog into a groove area at the XX-cogcluster. No play, no creeking.

 

[Landon]

Cassette Spacer

Yeah, a cassette spacer might be required on some hubs, but fortunately there's plenty of clearance for the 11 tooth cog to clamp the cassette on the SLR freewheel.

I'll use a torque wrench to be sure I've reached 40 Nm. That is pretty tight. I did use my Park cassette tool handle as I've always used on Shimano cassettes. It's possible that this wasn't tight enough for the XX cassette.

I'll reply after a ride on the weekend.

 

[rhamilton]

I am having the same issue, what can be done to stop it?

also I am getting real bad cable wear on my rear der cable at the attachment point to the der, anyone have a fix for that?

 

[cramhobart]

36 ?

this would be cos the 36 is putting an inordinate load on the hub/carrier when its prob not designed to take the load :-(

also prob 'cos it a mavic hub

I've read a few post now with people saying 36 increases load on freehub, can someone explain how,
I would have thought that the limit in load would be the power in the legs of the rider regardless of the gearing used to transfer it to the freehub. (please correct me if i'm wrong but I thought that xx ran a larger front cog, so the 36 gives a similar ratio to conventional "granny" gears).
The noise is obviously the sound of the chain stretching...LOL

 

[alchemist]

No doubt some engineer will be along later to explain it, in the meantime go and read up on moment forces.

For example, what do you do when trying to undo a stuck BB? Reach for a longer spanner to increase the force.

 

[FierceRider]

I've read a few post now with people saying 36 increases load on freehub, can someone explain how,
I would have thought that the limit in load would be the power in the legs of the rider regardless of the gearing used to transfer it to the freehub. (please correct me if i'm wrong but I thought that xx ran a larger front cog, so the 36 gives a similar ratio to conventional "granny" gears).
The noise is obviously the sound of the chain stretching...LOL

hey mate, the increased load comes from the increase in torque that is created by the gear ratios. The problem presents itself on some 29er users that use a 11-36 with a tripple chain ring setup (3 x 9) the increased amount of torque basically "rips the hub apart" (ruins the internals).

This problem shouldnt present itself on a 2 x 9 setup due to the smaller chainring not being as small as the "granny" on a 3 chain ring setup. So because the chainring isnt as small on the XX cranks the amount of torque that is created by the granny and 36 is non existant.

Hope this helps

 

[Zoom]

I remember this coming up on roadie forums.
With more gears the chain and gears need to be made narrower, which means the area the gear grips onto the hub with is smaller, so the forces are high enough to press into the metal of the hub. You need to buy hubs made of harder metal, for example steel instead of aluminium.

 

[Rookie]

Hi, I recently chased something like this for a week and found that the derailuer hanger bolts that attach the hangar to the frame were 1/2 turn loose. It didn't appear to be coming from there so it took a while to find. sometimes it isn't what we think it is initially. My frame is carbon and the sound appeared to be coming from the chainrings at first as it seems to travel a bit. The sound only came on when the cranks were under load hence why I thought it was the chainrings/BB. Man I spent some time chasing it.

 

[Landon]

XX Cassette

I started this thread in January and solved the problem soon after. It was my own fault. The cassette just wasn't tight enough. I've had a perfectly silent ride since then.

This thread can now be closed.

 

[quiggs]

Am thinking of making the change from 3x9 XTR to XX 2x10 are you happy performance wise to have made the change?? after a few months riding

quiggs