Freewheel froze on way into work today.

1-2" of light powdery snow yesterday combined with temps in the teens.

Commute this morning was -3F.

All that equals frozen.

my freewheel was running sluggishly, my glasses fogged up and froze instantly, and then my scarf froze to the tiny hairs on my face.

did you go to tinkle town?

No I made it to work, Sandra Bullock style.

Its inside next to my desk right now. Hopefully that will get me home.

I got 'Lectric Lube'd. No problem this morning.

Bummer. That happened to me once; because of that I now exclusively ride fixed in the winter. I've heard applying a light synthetic lube like triflow may thin out the grease enough to help prevent that from happening again. BOCTAOE, YMMV. Good luck!

Never heard of that first one. I guess Scott Adams said it first.

I had that happen a couple of times on an old winter commuter. Swapped the freewheel with a white industries and it never happened again. This year I opted for fixed.

My IGH kept going, but froze into 4th, so it was 4 for the last 6 miles of a 12.5 mile commute.

My toes were so cold they hurt to walk on after the ride.

I found that the best bet is to buy one of those saline nose washes from CVS/Walgreens, pour out the saline, and refill it with denatured alcohol. Loosens the ice right up, and has a nice spray nozzle. You can, of course, just carry the whole bottle of denatured alcohol, but that's just annoying.

my shimano coaster brake hub didn't freeze...but it is definitely slowly destroying itself!! I think there might be rocks instead of bearings inside now.

that happened to my fixed/fixed surly, two weeks ago it had a nice icy explosion on a ride. At least I get to ride on a hub that spins now.

Whaz that? I need that....

Sadly, my freewheel and my rear brake froze yesterday morning. I was able to appy the brake, but the reverse did not happen... FOrtunately, I was only 1/2 mile from home... So I forced open the brake and rode home and switch to cx bike. The commuter had been ridden in the rain Thursday... for like 2 hours... I thought it woulda dried out by then... But no. Gonna have to tear it apart and put it back together again. I have triflow, so I'll be squirtin up that ss freewheel while tearing apart the rear brake....

It's a freehub grease that stays the same consistency down to -50F. There's copper in it.
http://thegoldenwrench.blogspot.com/200 ... ow-up.html

Boring, obscure history to all, perhaps, but biker_lee:

Back in the day (prior to WWII) a chemist for Rohm & Haas was working with acrylic acids and alcohols. He was dissolving various acids in various alcohols and looking for a commercial product (this was how Plexiglass was discovered). When he dissolved a particular high-order acrylic acid in a high-order alcohol he got a waxy substance of little commercial interest but noted that one of its properties was that it flattened the viscosity curve of mineral oil.

During the big one (WWII) the army had people going through all the patents to see if there was something that could be used for the war effort. A researcher noticed the viscosity-flattening substance and reasoned that it would make a good oil additive for cold weather applications -- a thin oil at cold temps wouldn't get too thin when brought up to operating temperature. This was immediately pressed into service and the first oil additive was born. The Russians had American hydraulic equipment with this additive during the battle of Stalingrad, the Germans did not. The Russian's machines worked while the Germans froze in their tracks. After the war the scientist from Rohm & Haas was fond of telling the story of how he won the battle of Stalingrad.


Now here's my million dollar idea. A small battery pack or perhaps a hub generator that powers a small heater to keep your freewheel toasty warm. Somebody get on that!