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Open-bearing hub maintenance
Hello,
How often do you check, clean and regrease the bearings on "open- bearing" hubs? Is it necessary at all if the wheel turns smoothly and you don't hear a thing (front wheel) or just the cassette (real wheel)? Thanks. |
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#2
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Open-bearing hub maintenance
On Apr 23, 8:41*am, PCman wrote:
Hello, How often do you check, clean and regrease the bearings on "open- bearing" hubs? Is it necessary at all if the wheel turns smoothly and you don't hear a thing (front wheel) or just the cassette (real wheel)? Thanks. If your hubs spins "smoothly" I would just leave it alone and ride! Otherwise, if you think it needs taking apart, follow the excellent instructions at Park Tool: http://www.parktool.com/repair/byreg...geField2 .y=8 |
#3
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Open-bearing hub maintenance
On Apr 23, 3:59*pm, bfd wrote:
If your hubs spins "smoothly" I would just leave it alone and ride! Otherwise, if you think it needs taking apart, follow the excellent instructions at Park Tool: http://www.parktool.com/repair/byreg...ageField2.x=23.... Thanks for the link, great one. The book seems to indicate the bearings should be checked, cleaned & regreased regularly, it doesn't say to wait until there is a problem to do so. It may not be worth the risk, though. |
#4
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Open-bearing hub maintenance
On Apr 23, 2:11*pm, PCman wrote:
On Apr 23, 3:59*pm, bfd wrote: If your hubs spins "smoothly" I would just leave it alone and ride! Otherwise, if you think it needs taking apart, follow the excellent instructions at Park Tool: http://www.parktool.com/repair/byreg...ageField2.x=23.... Thanks for the link, great one. The book seems to indicate the bearings should be checked, cleaned & regreased regularly, it doesn't say to wait until there is a problem to do so. It may not be worth the risk, though. Yes, Grade 25 ball bearings are cheap. Maybe the question is how many miles do you have on your hubs? If its alot, i.e., say more than a couple of thousand, and you ride in alot of wet weather and/or dirt, then you should definitely open up the hubs and repack with brand new Grade 25 bbs. Its cheap and pretty easy to do. Get some good cone wrenches (I like Campy!). Good Luck! |
#5
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Open-bearing hub maintenance
On 2008-04-23, PCman wrote:
Hello, How often do you check, clean and regrease the bearings on "open- bearing" hubs? Is it necessary at all if the wheel turns smoothly and you don't hear a thing (front wheel) or just the cassette (real wheel)? Thanks. Once a year at least, more often if you ride uften or in bad conditions. Even if the hub runs smooth the grease will need replenishing. Cheers Joel -- Human Powered Cycles | High quality servicing and repairs | Affordable second hand bikes (03) 9029 6504 | Bicycle reuse centre www.humanpowered.com.au | Mechanical and on-road training and instruction |
#6
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Open-bearing hub maintenance
On Apr 23, 11:41 am, PCman wrote:
Hello, How often do you check, clean and regrease the bearings on "open- bearing" hubs? Is it necessary at all if the wheel turns smoothly and you don't hear a thing (front wheel) or just the cassette (real wheel)? Thanks. Mine get a full overhaul once a year. They get opened up for a look after any ride in the rain and either cleaned out or just topped off depending on whether or not the grease looks dirty. Unless you've really packed the entire hub shell with extremely thick grease, it's probably not going to be completely silent. You will still hear the balls rolling. Only worry if it's particularly crunchy, or if it's sticky at one spot in the wheel rotation. |
#7
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Open-bearing hub maintenance
On Apr 24, 8:48*am, wrote:
Mine get a full overhaul once a year. *They get opened up for a look after any ride in the rain and either cleaned out or just topped off depending on whether or not the grease looks dirty. *Unless you've really packed the entire hub shell with extremely thick grease, it's probably not going to be completely silent. *You will still hear the balls rolling. *Only worry if it's particularly crunchy, or if it's sticky at one spot in the wheel rotation. Thanks for your reply. That's the strange thing. I bought this bike in 1994, mid-high end at the time. Good looking too. I have the bike hanging from a wall bracket and when I roll the front wheel in complete silence with my ear next to the hub for the life of me I can't hear a thing. Nothing (and I have pretty good hearing). I worry that if I try to open it I may end up damaging a perfect working hub. I degreased and lube the drivetrain last week, looks nice & clean... |
#8
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Open-bearing hub maintenance
On 24 Apr 2008 08:58:53 GMT, Joel Mayes
wrote: On 2008-04-23, PCman wrote: Hello, How often do you check, clean and regrease the bearings on "open- bearing" hubs? Is it necessary at all if the wheel turns smoothly and you don't hear a thing (front wheel) or just the cassette (real wheel)? Thanks. Once a year at least, more often if you ride uften or in bad conditions. Even if the hub runs smooth the grease will need replenishing. Not necessarily. Here's something I posted back in 2001. Admittedly it's about a BB and not a hub, but both are cup-and-cone ball bearing installations. "I must now have between 40 and 50K miles on one DuraAce cup-and-cone BB. At one point I determined I was going to replace it with a cartridge unit, so just figured I'd ride it until it went "crunch, crunch, crunch". Four years (and perhaps 20K miles) later I pulled it apart as part of a total refurb job on the bike. Since it was still going strong I just replaced the balls and reinstalled it. That was three winters ago and I haven't touched it since. BTW, I discarded the ball retainers many years ago." So now seven years later I'm still riding with that original BB. I can't remember when I last cleaned and re-lubed it. So why should hubs be any different? BTW, yesterday's ride was on that same bike. :-) -- jeverett3ATsbcglobalDOTnet (John V. Everett) |
#9
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Open-bearing hub maintenance
On 2008-04-24, John Everett
wrote: On 24 Apr 2008 08:58:53 GMT, Joel Mayes wrote: On 2008-04-23, PCman wrote: Hello, How often do you check, clean and regrease the bearings on "open- bearing" hubs? Is it necessary at all if the wheel turns smoothly and you don't hear a thing (front wheel) or just the cassette (real wheel)? Thanks. Once a year at least, more often if you ride uften or in bad conditions. Even if the hub runs smooth the grease will need replenishing. Not necessarily. Here's something I posted back in 2001. Admittedly it's about a BB and not a hub, but both are cup-and-cone ball bearing installations. SNIP So now seven years later I'm still riding with that original BB. I can't remember when I last cleaned and re-lubed it. So why should hubs be any different? BTW, yesterday's ride was on that same bike. :-) The grease in the races will be full of metal particles and is slowly lapping the races into oblivion. This will take longer on good quality components but is inevitable if you don't clean and relube regularly. Cheers Joel -- Human Powered Cycles | High quality servicing and repairs | Affordable second hand bikes (03) 9029 6504 | Bicycle reuse centre www.humanpowered.com.au | Mechanical and on-road training and instruction |
#10
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Open-bearing hub maintenance
On 24 Apr 2008 22:32:36 GMT, Joel Mayes
wrote: On 2008-04-24, John Everett wrote: On 24 Apr 2008 08:58:53 GMT, Joel Mayes wrote: On 2008-04-23, PCman wrote: Hello, How often do you check, clean and regrease the bearings on "open- bearing" hubs? Is it necessary at all if the wheel turns smoothly and you don't hear a thing (front wheel) or just the cassette (real wheel)? Thanks. Once a year at least, more often if you ride uften or in bad conditions. Even if the hub runs smooth the grease will need replenishing. Not necessarily. Here's something I posted back in 2001. Admittedly it's about a BB and not a hub, but both are cup-and-cone ball bearing installations. SNIP So now seven years later I'm still riding with that original BB. I can't remember when I last cleaned and re-lubed it. So why should hubs be any different? BTW, yesterday's ride was on that same bike. :-) The grease in the races will be full of metal particles and is slowly lapping the races into oblivion. This will take longer on good quality components but is inevitable if you don't clean and relube regularly. Admittedly wear of the components is inevitable, but what's magic about replenishing the grease "once a year at least"? And why "even if the hub runs smooth the grease will need replenishing."? And why is it "the races will be full of metal particles" after a year? Will they be half full after six months? I'm just saying there are no hard-and-fast rules regarding bearing maintenance. A lot depends upon operating conditions and I've gone much longer than a year between bearing cleaning and relubing with no apparent adverse effects. BTW, our sun running out of hydrogen is also inevitable. ;-) -- jeverett3ATsbcglobalDOTnet (John V. Everett) |
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