How Many Times Does It Take You To Get The Hub Bearings Just Right?

[Illaveago]

Loads of times .
I find that the thin spanners aren't thin enough and you end up bolting them to your wheel ! .
Also the washer which sits between the nut and washer has an external diameter greater that the AF size of the nut.

 

[Blue Hills]

Loads of times .
I find that the thin spanners aren't thin enough and you end up bolting them to your wheel ! .

Never had that.
What brand are your cone spanners?

 

[Lovacott]

Loads of times .
I find that the thin spanners aren't thin enough and you end up bolting them to your wheel ! .

I have a decent set of cone spanners and don't get that issue. However, I can't get a proper bite on the cone unless I take the brake disc off first.

The dome headed hex screws on the disk sit at the same level as the cone so I've found it easier to simply remove the disk rather than trying to fart around attacking it from an angle.

 

[Illaveago]

Never had that.
What brand are your cone spanners?

Raleigh. They are the ones which came with my bikes.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I wonder if my issues with the Apollo are borne of the fact that it runs a freewheel rather than a cassette?

Because it has 7 cogs, the drive side bearing is sat further away from the dropout on a section of the spindle which must flex under load. Surely this must increase the wear rate on the drive side bearings?

7 speed is about the limit for a freewheel with everything wider seeming to be a cassette.

You can get eight speed freewheels.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I wonder if my issues with the Apollo are borne of the fact that it runs a freewheel rather than a cassette?

Because it has 7 cogs, the drive side bearing is sat further away from the dropout on a section of the spindle which must flex under load. Surely this must increase the wear rate on the drive side bearings?

7 speed is about the limit for a freewheel with everything wider seeming to be a cassette.

When we moved from 5 speed to 6 speed we found that 6 speed was prone to breaking axles, the club I was with at the time did some rough stuff on their rides, I limped home several times having broken the rear axle on the drive side.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I've just put new bearings in my rear hub and I counted how many times I went through the process of pinching up the locknut before I got the bearing tension just right.

27 times in total (I was getting really pissed off by attempt number ten and I was contemplating becoming a serial killer by attempt number twenty).

I was nearly there on the second attempt but there was a very tiny rattle in the spindle which made me unhappy so I started again.

The best I've ever managed on any bike is three attempts.

Maybe my bearing replacement technique is not that great?

It always takes as long as you have....

 

[Lovacott]

You can get eight speed freewheels.

I don't doubt it for a second. The fact that the online parts retailers refer to cassettes as freewheels kind of muddies the water a bit.

 

[Lovacott]

When we moved from 5 speed to 6 speed we found that 6 speed was prone to breaking axles, the club I was with at the time did some rough stuff on their rides, I limped home several times having broken the rear axle on the drive side.

I replaced the back axle six months ago because it had a very slight bend in it. I went over a low hydrant cover on a bit of fast downhill which made a fair old jolt.

The new axle is still perfectly straight when extracted, but I wonder how straight it is when it's actually under load?

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I don't doubt it for a second. The fact that the online parts retailers refer to cassettes as freewheels kind of muddies the water a bit.

View attachment 577415

Out of stock at the moment.

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/freewheels-8-speed/

 

[OldShep]

Those who claim to get it right first time certainly aren’t perfectionists.

 

[fossyant]

Those who claim to get it right first time certainly aren’t perfectionists.

Or we are using better quality hubs.

 

[Blue Hills]

Those who claim to get it right first time certainly aren’t perfectionists.

yes, struck me as odd - almost supernatural.

 

[Blue Hills]

Or we are using better quality hubs.

Pretty much all shimano hubs in my experience are good and with good bearings as originally supplied - precision engineering needs to be precisely set up.

 

[fossyant]

My DA hubs I don't need to touch as they have grease ports. The Deore hubs were a doddle to set right on my MTB, but I'm now running cartridge bearings on four of the bikes now. Mavic hubs I have use a cone set up to adjust the pre load. My through axel ones just preload when the through axel is done up.

MrsFs is cup and cone, and last time I adjusted it was because the freehub had come loose from new and I needed an 11 or 12 mm hex to do up from the non drive side.

Top tip, always make sure the drive side cones are done super tight, and never touch them. Then adjust from the non drive side. If not tight they will turn ever so slightly.