A worn or noisy 3-pawl freehub usually leaves you choosing between a hub rebuild and a new wheel, neither of which feels like money well spent. The Ratchet LN Freehub Body Upgrade Kit from DT Swiss gives you a third option: convert the pawl-driven hub you already own over to the Ratchet System used across the rest of the DT Swiss hub range. The freehub seal that normally lives in the pawl body is designed into the Ratchet LN body, which is what makes this an official conversion rather than a workaround.

The reliability argument for the Ratchet System comes down to contact area. Every tooth on both ratchet rings engages at the same time, so drive torque spreads evenly across the interface instead of concentrating on the small engagement surfaces of three pawls. That is why Ratchet hubs hold up under riders who chew through pawl systems, and why DT Swiss treats Ratchet LN as the entry point to the family rather than a separate design.

This version pairs an 18-tooth ratchet set with an aluminum SRAM XDR freehub body running a sealed bearing. Thick teeth on the 18-tooth rings make this the configuration DT Swiss points toward for strong riders, heavy bikes, and e-bike duty, with low tooth counts favored for strength and standing guidance to stay at 24 teeth or fewer on e-bikes. Confirm your hub actually uses the 3-pawl system, such as the 360 or 370 series, before ordering.... Read More