How easy is it to strip down wheels and replace bearings?

[OnTheRivet]

more and more good advice, thanks very much all, really useful....

I think I will get some new bearings before I strip them down just in case. You know what its like, start a job and then find you dont have 'x' and 'y', go down the local shop to get them, come back and then discover you havent got 'z' either

 

[cyberknight]

If you take the balls out of the cages you won't have enough, as the cages space the balls out.
A better bet is to buy a bag of just balls, a matched size.

I asked the same the other day as halfords only sell them in cages , ebay or LBS .

 

[guitarpete247]

Either. Depends how quickly you want them.

 

[Studley]

My old-ish bike is a pain to get some parts. I tried stripping down the cone & cup bearings, front was fine and easy to renew the bearings but the rear was a different story. Had to buy some suitable cone spanners and even using them I couldn't free the cone on one side. It's also the cone that's pitted and needs replacing. Spent hours looking for a replacement cone and managed to source one online but they were out of stock. 3 months later and still waiting for them to re-stock the cone. In the meantime I fitted new bearings and packed them in grease, seems to work but think I'll need to replace the full axle, if I can source the correct one at a reasonable price.