Today something weird happened. While riding my Koga, I noticed that all bikes around me where making a barely audible clicking noise while their rear wheels were spinning - which is pretty normal, as far as I know. However, my Koga Miyata never does that. I don’t know why I never really thought about this before, but it made me curious, so I took a closer look at the rear hub and there I found it, stamped in golden letters on the hub: My Koga has been equipped with a Shimano Silent Crutch (LX, not the more complex XT-variation) which seem to no longer be produced due to being subject to lots of criticism for not being very durable and being too heavy. Most people seem to especially dislike the silent clutches that Shimano produced.
The Koga was bought in 1999 and I am astounded that the hub is still working without showing any signs of it being worn off: It is neither feeling sandy when spinning the wheel nor has it locked down while I’m putting heavy load on it during a ride. During my research however, I found out that it is common practice to apply loads of WD40 to it to have it feel like new and spinning even smoother that it already is. I’ll try this during my holiday next week.
I’m not sure how I could miss this for so long.
I can’t upload any pictures to my Ghost-driven blog with only a tablet, so you’ll have to visit G+ for pictures of the clutch.