Cracking sound after tune-up! Please help! Am I gonna die??

[hozn]

My one experience with Shimano cup & cone hubs was in my mtb. The bearings died and ruined the hubs, probably only a thousand (mtb) miles into the life of the wheels. Maybe they were misadjusted; I had no idea what I was doing.

Since then I have always chosen cartridge bearing hubs. Probably depends on the hubs, but so far my cartridge bearing hubs seem to last forever (at least 10k, though I expect double that really) without any servicing.

[Crickey7]

It really depends on the kind of riding you do. In my experience, a lot of wet-weather riding is what necessitates repacking the bearings, as the water washes the grease out.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@KLizotte 116179 wrote:

Bike acoustics defy all laws of physics if you ask me.

this is correct almost all of the time.

[baiskeli]

@KLizotte 116174 wrote:

Well, I took the bike out for an hour today and didn’t hear the death rattle. Yah! The LBS replaced two donut shaped thingees (that’s a technical term) containing ball bearings in the front hub. I can’t believe how loud a bunch of errant ball bearings can be! So a word to the wise, if you have an aluminum frame with a carbon fork and it sounds as if someone is throwing pebbles hard at your frame, get your hubs checked out. And yes, the pings can be very, very loud.

The wheels are only a little over a year old. Am I supposed to get the hubs “serviced” every year? I haven’t had anything done to them except this repair.

Thanks for all your help.

Dang, that’s exactly what I was going to say, except I didn’t because the wheels aren’t that old.

If you’re riding in lots of rain and mud, it could get in there and put enough grit or rust in there to cause it, or just eat out the grease. It’s a good idea to take the hubs apart and clean and regrease them on occasion. But I wouldn’t have thought it would need it so fast. Maybe the hub was poorly sealed.

I once had an old hub just freeze up. No noise first, just one day out on the trail the wheel wouldn’t turn any more. At least you had some warning. Glad you fixed it.

[KLizotte]

Humpf. My bike is pampered. I keep it in my apartment and at work it is out of the weather cause I park it under a huge overhang or in the garage. It never sees mud and very rarely rain. I do take it out on the C&O and crushed gravel paths on occasion though.

I checked my old receipts. The hub is an Alchemy Elf which comes standard with WMQ ABEC 5 steel bearings according to the documentation from the manufacturer.

Well, the Elf had better be happy for a while else it is gonna be replaced. It’s gonna work to keep a roof over its head!

[peterw_diy]

That’s a cartridge bearing hub. I wonder if the preload was misadjusted and led to premature failure.

My experience with cartridge hubs is mixed. My MTB runs old Phil Wood field serviceable hubs and one of the original cartridges died within the first two months. The others have been fine. But while I only use cartridge bearing bottom brackets, I’m happy with loose ball hubs on my road bikes.

[DismalScientist]

@KLizotte 116179 wrote:

. So, next year when I bring my bike in for a tune-up I should ask for the hubs to be greased and repacked? I wasn’t aware that not doing this could ruin the hubs.

Nope. The “donut thingies (…”containing ball bearings”)” they replaced were the cartridge bearings, There should be no problem with the hub going forward.

[dkel]

@DismalScientist 116234 wrote:

Nope. The “donut thingies” they replaced were the cartridge bearings, There should be no problem with the hub going forward.

Unless they were the cones. I just had mine done (my rear hub has loose bearings), and the cone part was looking squirrely, so they replaced that part. The cone doesn’t look much like a donut, though, except that it has a hole in it.

[KLizotte]

The donut thingees looked like this and I found the following info about the hub:

[IMG]http://bikearlingtonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8662&stc=1[/IMG]

[dkel]

That’s a cartridge bearing. Those “thingees” usually last a good, long time, and they’re fairly weather resistant compared to loose bearings. I’m surprised they gave you trouble.

[Author]

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