Chasing Creaks in the Yeti SB115 Leads to An Obvious Conclusion - Shimano 12sp Hubs

All Mendicino weekend the growing creek ached on my mind, and troubled my soul.

I assumed it was bottom bracket, so finally we got the replacement and after a violent evening of rubber mallets and not quite the proper tools for removal, I got the old SRAM DUB BB out, and new one in.

The bearings in the removed unit were rough, but not actually loose or damaged. Maybe try, but not enough for the creaks I was hearing.

I test rode anyway on the commute to work - besides getting sweaty, I remained creaky.

Its not the BB, or chainring...

I jumped on forums and found I was not alone - everything from seatposts to manufacturing flaws were blamed. I went to Yeti's support site, they sent me to the local dealer who I emailed. I poked my Yeti guru in a work meeting, who navigated the option of parts and presses I might need to deploy. The complex looking links scared me, but I would dig in over the long weekend...

I found I could reproduce the creak statically at 9 and 3 oclock under load, the internet full of testing suggestions applying load and stretching positions for the Yetis. Chain and cassette being brand new, I suspected chainring! I could swap the exact newer unit from the Intense 951 (still for sale) and so I immediately did so when I rode home. Still creeking after the swap, so I swapped back.

On the theme of swapping parts, I FINALLY decided to swap the 12speed wheel from the Intense, AND then...silence.

It was the wheel hub - Shimano 12sp wheel no less, duh! But this was my SLX champion, a replacement for known XT 12sp issues. 

Then I recalled the mysterious looseness of the new cassette install, I even took a video of it for Todd's Bike Shop that I need to edit. I might not now, but none the less, lets take a look at the hub after referring to some oldish Youtube videos on the topic.

Off came the newish rotor and newish cassette and then the dustcap, which was way too sticky and did not simply "pop" off as in the nice clean video examples.

See the tiny bearings raining down and out of the freehub? That is not good.

Tiny bearings sprayed out onto the floor. Some chunks too but mostly these tiny round bearings that apparently hold the free-hub together! I was shocked, I expected proper sealed bearings. Lots of rust and dirt, too much washing?

The axle and freehub removed together - they seem to be fused now, usually the freehub should pop right off but not here!

Rather then easily popping off, the freehub was very stuck to the axle. I went well beyond the instructional videos online to rubber mallet and tapping out the entire axle. More shock for me, I see round old school ball bearings hanging out in the SLX hub, cone bearings hiding in there.

This is how Shimano sells a hub for $75 - good old cone bearings inside.


So then I wondered what was inside the XT 12speed hub in my parts bin - note I rejected this good looking hub previously FOR A REASON (ie CREAKING) so I decided to explore and see if the XT guts were compatible with the SLX.

Using my new axle disassembly knowledge I found the XT *also* went with cone bearings, and in fact the WHOLE axle and freehub both fit right into the SLX hub and bearings

I slapped in plenty of grease on those exposed cone bearings - these main bearings seemed okay, maybe a little rough but I used the XT's cones vs moving the SLX (probably a bad idea).

 Love Phil's Grease

I put the wheel together, freehub  operating and axle spining smooth, I went for a test ride in the dark  and... a new creak, or actually an old creak of the XT freehub that promoted it to my parts box in the first place!!!

Shimano 12sp got me again. OR did it? 1077 miles on the SLX hub while on the Yeti, BUT this wheel was also on the Intense for nearly 700 and maybe another 1000 or more on the Santa Cruz. Before this, it MAY have been an XT or I already had decided to build this wheel from the start with SLX because of poor XT performance.

For $75, maybe this hub was an actual success? Moving the wheel between bikes hid the history and long term abuse this RACE WHEEL went through.

So I decided to order an XT replacement, hoping Shimano improved the design by 2024. Worldwide Cyclery had one. Yes, I hope to re-use the spokes and simply move the rim over.

Sleeping and riding and this morning pricing a OneUp today, $219 + $50 freehub, I went to Amazon and ordered another SLX for $79 as well. Yes, I am cheap.

I also ordered Coach Dan's magic salt tablets - a Gu Product. I took 2x of these I had leftover in my bag on yesterday's ride, survived.