Loud freehubs are a crime against good manners
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Photo credit: Daniel Frank
According to an article on the BikeRadar website, loud freehubs are a crime against good manners. What’s a freehub? I had to look it up. It’s a type of rear wheel hub that allows a bicycle to coast down a hill freely. Apparently new freehub designs can be noisy, and one manufacturer makes a very noisy one.
I used to ride my bicycle along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway almost every weekend. A friend who lived nearby would drive to my house early in the morning, pick me up and we would drive out to meet another friend who lived near the famous Malibu Pier. The three of us would then ride west at a leisurely pace in the cool, clean, quiet early morning ocean air, enjoying the wonderful views. Our bicycles were well-maintained and quiet.
Occasionally a motorcycle with an illegally modified exhaust or a noisy diesel truck would pass us, but in general it was a quiet ride. There was one big hill that gave us a good workout going up, followed by a nice downhill coast.
I stopped riding bikes 20 years ago when the son of a colleague at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was unfortunately killed on the very stretch of highway that I traveled every weekend. Why take a chance?
Some bicycle riders claim the noisy freehub keeps snakes away and warns hikers on mountain trails or shared bike paths that someone is riding down the hill. But writer Jack Luke doesn’t think loud freehubs are good, and most of those commenting on the article concur.
I agree. There’s no reason for unnecessary noise from a bicycle. The riders I knew prided themselves on well-maintained bicycles with gears that didn’t make noise and brakes that didn’t squeal. Bicycle riding should be a quiet experience, where one can converse with one’s riding partners if the path or road is wide enough to ride side by side, not one where you have to shout to converse.
Whether in an urban area, on a designated bike path or on a mountain track, quiet bikes will help make a better and healthier world for all.