Race X-lites in rain

Hello, I'm going to be riding tomorrow and they're calling for rain. I'll
be using my new Bontrager Race X-Lite wheels and was wondering if I should
be worried about water getting into the hubs. Anyone know how well these
hubs are sealed against water leakage?

Thanks,

Mike

In article ,
"Passman" wrote:

Hello, I'm going to be riding tomorrow and they're calling for rain. I'll
be using my new Bontrager Race X-Lite wheels and was wondering if I should
be worried about water getting into the hubs. Anyone know how well these
hubs are sealed against water leakage?

Thanks,

Mike

If you check the rims closely, you will see a small hole to allow any
water to drain if the hole is down when you put up the bike.

Send that rain here, please!

HAND

H M Leary wrote:
In article ,
"Passman" wrote:

Hello, I'm going to be riding tomorrow and they're calling for rain.
I'll be using my new Bontrager Race X-Lite wheels and was wondering
if I should be worried about water getting into the hubs. Anyone
know how well these hubs are sealed against water leakage?

Thanks,

Mike

If you check the rims closely, you will see a small hole to allow any
water to drain if the hole is down when you put up the bike.

OP was asking about the hubs, however. FWIW my Bonty Race Lites still spin
easy after two years; haven't touched 'em (don't know how for one thing)...
Not much rain in San Diego, of course, but have gotten caught a few times...

I haven't had any problems, and I've been caught in torrential rain a few
times while riding mine.

--
Bob C.

"Of course it hurts. The trick is not minding that it hurts."
T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia)
"Passman" wrote in message
...
Hello, I'm going to be riding tomorrow and they're calling for rain. I'll
be using my new Bontrager Race X-Lite wheels and was wondering if I should
be worried about water getting into the hubs. Anyone know how well these
hubs are sealed against water leakage?

Thanks,

Mike

Hello, I'm going to be riding tomorrow and they're calling for rain. I'll
be using my new Bontrager Race X-Lite wheels and was wondering if I should
be worried about water getting into the hubs. Anyone know how well these
hubs are sealed against water leakage?

Thanks,

Mike

The Race X-Lites may be better than many (at keeping rain out of the
bearings) but it can still be a problem. A little rain isn't going to kill
them, but if you're riding in hour after hour of the stuff, you'll likely
see some get past the seals. You might pop off the axle caps and shoot a
bunch of extra grease into them, as a barrier to keep the water out. I would
also consider popping the axle out after the ride, to allow things to dry
out. This is a matter of "Do as I say, not as I do" as my hubs get exposed
to pretty nasty rain during the winter, and I don't take care of them like I
should.

I have yet to find any hubs that combine high performance (relatively low
rolling resistance), light weight and high water resistance. I know of many
that claim otherwise, but we sure do replace a lot of bearings in them! I
almost wish that companies would stop even trying to keep water out of the
"sealed" bearings (usually by putting caps over them) and have exposed seals
that we could easily pry off, allowing us to re-grease the bearings as need
be.

By the way, I was fortunate to get to ride in one of the Discovery team cars
during a stage of the '05 Tour de France, with one of their two mechanics in
the back seat. I asked him about the way they clean their bikes; seems like
customers see photos of them hosing down the bikes, which I know for a fact
wrecks bearings. So how do their wheels stand up to that sort of abuse
(during the bike cleaning)? Turns out they don't need to; they typically
replace their wheels every 500 miles or so. Why? Because they can. Why
bother with bearing maintenance (you've probably seen the old films showing
a mechanic tearing apart hubs, bottom brackets & headsets every single day)
when you can just treat them as a disposable item? Boggles the mind. I'd
sure like to be the guy who gets the "old" wheels...

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

In article ,
"Bill Sornson" wrote:

H M Leary wrote:
In article ,
"Passman" wrote:

Hello, I'm going to be riding tomorrow and they're calling for rain.
I'll be using my new Bontrager Race X-Lite wheels and was wondering
if I should be worried about water getting into the hubs. Anyone
know how well these hubs are sealed against water leakage?

Thanks,

Mike

If you check the rims closely, you will see a small hole to allow any
water to drain if the hole is down when you put up the bike.

OP was asking about the hubs, however. FWIW my Bonty Race Lites still spin
easy after two years; haven't touched 'em (don't know how for one thing)...
Not much rain in San Diego, of course, but have gotten caught a few times...

So he did! Maybe I should larn to red agam!...

He probably has those crappy Trek sealed bearings that come with the
X-Lites. Failure rates run around 50% in my cycling club. They get a lot
of wobble. Others have no problem.

Maybe because the bearings have been replaced so frequently and my LBS
certainly applies enough grease that I have not had any problem.

( of course it doesn't rain here anymore )

HAND

Thanks for all the advice. As it turns out, the rain was about 50 miles
north and 50 miles south of the race route today, so I guess I lucked
out.....even though we really need the rain. Our team took first place in
the mixed under 40 category. I wouldn't mind a set of their "old" wheels
myself.

Mike



The Race X-Lites may be better than many (at keeping rain out of the
bearings) but it can still be a problem. A little rain isn't going to kill
them, but if you're riding in hour after hour of the stuff, you'll likely
see some get past the seals. You might pop off the axle caps and shoot a
bunch of extra grease into them, as a barrier to keep the water out. I
would also consider popping the axle out after the ride, to allow things
to dry out. This is a matter of "Do as I say, not as I do" as my hubs get
exposed to pretty nasty rain during the winter, and I don't take care of
them like I should.

I have yet to find any hubs that combine high performance (relatively low
rolling resistance), light weight and high water resistance. I know of
many that claim otherwise, but we sure do replace a lot of bearings in
them! I almost wish that companies would stop even trying to keep water
out of the "sealed" bearings (usually by putting caps over them) and have
exposed seals that we could easily pry off, allowing us to re-grease the
bearings as need be.

By the way, I was fortunate to get to ride in one of the Discovery team
cars during a stage of the '05 Tour de France, with one of their two
mechanics in the back seat. I asked him about the way they clean their
bikes; seems like customers see photos of them hosing down the bikes,
which I know for a fact wrecks bearings. So how do their wheels stand up
to that sort of abuse (during the bike cleaning)? Turns out they don't
need to; they typically replace their wheels every 500 miles or so. Why?
Because they can. Why bother with bearing maintenance (you've probably
seen the old films showing a mechanic tearing apart hubs, bottom brackets
& headsets every single day) when you can just treat them as a disposable
item? Boggles the mind. I'd sure like to be the guy who gets the "old"
wheels...

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

The Motorola team used to dump stuff each off season up in Wisconsin.
A buddy had Max Sciandri's Caloi and another picked up some nice
tubular wheels for a song. I imagine Disco does something similar.
500 miles seems REALLY low to me, but who knows.

I've probably put a good couple k on my Race Lites (5.2SL came with
them) and they are fine. My Race X-Lite Carbon's from ~2003 have LOTS
of miles on them with no noticeable issues. They are some seriously
solid wheels.

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:

By the way, I was fortunate to get to ride in one of the Discovery team cars
during a stage of the '05 Tour de France, with one of their two mechanics in
the back seat. I asked him about the way they clean their bikes; seems like
customers see photos of them hosing down the bikes, which I know for a fact
wrecks bearings. So how do their wheels stand up to that sort of abuse
(during the bike cleaning)? Turns out they don't need to; they typically
replace their wheels every 500 miles or so. Why? Because they can. Why
bother with bearing maintenance (you've probably seen the old films showing
a mechanic tearing apart hubs, bottom brackets & headsets every single day)
when you can just treat them as a disposable item? Boggles the mind. I'd
sure like to be the guy who gets the "old" wheels...


Reality, what a concept. Glad you mentioned this for all those that say
some type of something was used in the 'TdF', means anything to the
rest of us.

Easy to use anything, when you have a van of spares, a crew of
wrenches, that make the bicycles 'new' each day.

On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 05:12:45 GMT, "Mike Jacoubowsky"
wrote:

By the way, I was fortunate to get to ride in one of the Discovery team cars
during a stage of the '05 Tour de France, with one of their two mechanics in
the back seat. I asked him about the way they clean their bikes; seems like
customers see photos of them hosing down the bikes, which I know for a fact
wrecks bearings. So how do their wheels stand up to that sort of abuse
(during the bike cleaning)? Turns out they don't need to; they typically
replace their wheels every 500 miles or so. Why? Because they can. Why
bother with bearing maintenance (you've probably seen the old films showing
a mechanic tearing apart hubs, bottom brackets & headsets every single day)
when you can just treat them as a disposable item? Boggles the mind. I'd
sure like to be the guy who gets the "old" wheels...

I suspect that the old stuff that can be refurbished probably goes back to
Trek and is, in fact, refurbished there. Still, though, for a single-event
team like Disco.. replacing wheelsets every 2-3 stages still only gets you
to a bit over half a dozen in the race, per rider. Given how much
sponsoring money is involved on all sides, and how expensive really good
mechanics' time is, and the slightly greater chance of something going
wrong if it's newly refurbished and untested, it might very well be worth
it.


Jasper