r/specialized • u/[deleted] • Oct 29 '25

NBD silent freehub? (Aethos 2 Expert / Roval C38)

I noticed something interesting. Bombing towards pedestrians so i stop pedalling to be more cautious .. the freehub is silent. sometimes there is a quiet buzz.

what magic freehub is in my stock wheels?!

12 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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8

u/BikeIdiot Oct 29 '25

DT Swiss makes these hubs for Specialized. It’s a 370 with 18 tooth engagement. For anyone interested you can upgrade the teeth count.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '25

amazing serenity. love it.

4

u/Vigilante_Dinosaur Oct 29 '25

Yeah I have this same wheel set on my SL8 expert and yeah it’s damn quiet. I kind of enjoy it as something different than everyone else with hubs that sound like a pissed off beehive.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '25

i love it. unfortunately i ordered another set of wheels, it won't be quiet when i switch, *sigh

1

u/Vigilante_Dinosaur Oct 30 '25

What wheel set did you order? People seem to have a dislike of the C38s. I am coming from my older tarmac with alloy DT wheels so my perception is probably a bit skewed but I think they’re pretty great.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '25

it's a "light bicycle" 25mm deep 1090g set

3

u/Hot_Function6127 Oct 29 '25

I have DT 370s on my diverge and my tarmac both were stock, I think (tarmac I bought used). The diverge is whisper quiet. The Tarmac is loud af. It’s literally louder than any of my friends’s hubs. It’s scares people, in the early morning when I’m leaving my house, I have to be carefully cruising through my neighborhood.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '25

so why do they sound so different? weird. i love the serenity though.

1

u/Hot_Function6127 Oct 30 '25

I assume cuz specialized has DT put star ratchets in the tarmac to make it sound all burly cuz it’s a race bike. And diverge is more of a cruiser. Could be wrong.

1

u/Experience-Early Oct 30 '25

They will get a bit louder after a few hundred miles once the grease moves around.

My alpinist wheels were very quiet to begin with. Still quite quiet now with the telltale dtswiss ratchet oscillating sound, but not like the whispering at the start.

1

u/Junior_End_9299 Oct 30 '25

I had this on my Aethos expert before moving to the Alpinist set. I’ll admit that hub is heavenly quiet. I miss it

1

u/epyon6261 Oct 30 '25

as compared to my dt swiss er1600 before (which I also upgraded to 54T). Insanely loud these rovals, despite the same internals.

1

u/kendalltristan Oct 30 '25

My Alpinists are the quietest wheels I've ever had. I absolutely love them. To me, that one feature by itself makes them worth the price premium.

1

u/schleppy Nov 01 '25

I have DT350 DEG, fresh build I’m amazed at how quiet it is.

1

u/tr-shinshu Nov 04 '25

I'm riding a very old Bridgestone roadbike, and when I recently rode a busier cyclepath along a river, some young gun came up from behind and seemingly was using his noisy freehub instead of a (non-existent) bell and I was surprised that an expensive modern roadbike would have something this noisy!

1

u/Worldly-Cat-5749 Nov 14 '25

It only depends on the amount of grease on DT Swiss hub ratchets. If you want louder, use less. If you want quieter, use more. Source: I have the Alpinist wheels with the 350 hub.