toolguy wrote:

Thanks for your comments. I agree that any expensive wheel,
especially a mountain bike wheel, should be less fragile. Did the
problem ever return after the shop cleaned them up? Did they tell
anything specific that they did?

Hi Neil,

No, the "noise from hell" problem hasn't returned (yet?), but like I said
there's still some drag and "roughage".

All the guy (Ron) did was open the hub with a 10-mm, swab it out with a
Q-tip, and add some grease. But he agreed that the bearing wasn't very
smooth, and recommended replacing (I assume under warranty, as it started
well under a year since purchase).

He also implied that I abused the wheels somehow -- that no one else had
EVER had a problem with them -- so you can bet I'm going to show him your
original post (and my initial reply). I even started road biking last
summer, so the wheels get a lot less use than they would by a "full time"
mountain biker.

Keep us posted on what happens with your SL's!

Bill "thanks to others for /bearing/ with us" S.