Bicycle Mechanics - Tools needed for hub bearing re-greasing

Do I really need cone wrenches? I was able to disassemble my front hub without them this weekend w/o any problems just to look at the bearings.

I'll need a Cassette Lockring Tool, a Chain whip and lube to do the job correctly, right?

If your hubs are "traditional" cup-&-cone models, you will need cone wrenches to properly put them together again and lock in the bearing settings. An axle vise, and a bench vise to put the axle vise in, are extremely helpful too.

If you have cartridge-bearing hubs, cone wrenches will probably still be necessary but the methodology of getting the bearings cleaned and re-greased is going to be different.

I have yet to see a cartridge bearing hub that needed a cone wrench. and I actually have several different ones.The cassette does not have to come off in the most cases I have dealt with to get to the hub bearings.Cartridge bearingas if that is what you have are typically tossed and replaced when they go bad.

If Purple Hayze was able to easily disassemble his hubs and 'look at the bearings', then he probably doesn't have cartridge bearings.

1) Yes, you need cone wrenches to properly reassemble.
2) Don't do it yourself. Have some knowledgeable person help you. Your front wheel is too important to have anything go wrong. Imagine yourself going down a hill at 40+ miles an hour when your hub flies apart and the bearings go spilling out into the street.

I watched the bearings pour out of my skateboard wheel once when I was surfing down a steep hill. I looked like Dr. Phibes by the time I stopped lubricating the asphalt with my flesh; the skin was peeled off of me like a chiquita banana.

and maybe the 'bearings' he was looking at the were the cartridges and not the 'ball bearings'.If he took cup and ball types apart with out cone wrenches,the locknut(s) were loose and the bearings could be toast. And otherwise, what a load. Having serviced countless hub bearings,I have never had one explode.That even goes back to teen age days when I did not know sheet about alot of things,,but did know how to use a frickin wrench.

Originally posted by pokey
Having serviced countless hub bearings,I have never had one explode.

Well, the hub doesn't actually 'explode'. Rather, the cones come loose and the bearings fall out. That CAN happen. Yowch!