Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Hub Slayer

..and not happy!:mad:

The LBS has had my commuter Giant Yukon rear wheel for a week now! I heard a pop and then when free wheeling (which I don't do often if it makes a difference?) a clunk/pop and hitch was felt from my rear wheel. Not good! I turned around and went home and swapped out for the car (suck-0!!).

Long and short of it is, the rear hub is so locked up they haven't even been able to disasemble it! The cassette is fine, the wheel is fine but it still went DOA. The kicker is that I've had this bike for less than two months and have a hair under 600 miles on it. It looks to be covered by the factory warranty (thankfully) but still!! I'm not overly rough but I do my best to always crank and I've found some potholes at 430am on my way to work. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. I mearly stood up on the cranks to get across a four lane as fast as I could when my light turned.

I'm bumming hard! The ol' Chicago Schwinn just isn't cutting commuter duty.

Anyone else have this happen to them?

One week down and prolly another till I get it back....:mad::mad::mad::mad:

any advice for me here? Any MTB hubs recommended for an Uber Clyde? Im at a loss here...

Talk to the mechanic and see what he thinks went wrong. If its a defect, give the replacement hub a try.

If it just failed under your weight, I would suggest having a new rear wheel built so that your bike isn't in the shop two weeks out of every season.

I don't have any specific recommendations on hubs, but you can easily find something better than the rear hub on that Yukon. Back when I ran a shop I used to put uber clydes on downhill wheels if they could afford it. If you're just using the bike for commuting, that might be overkill.

thanks! I'll look into it. I know the component set on this bike is, to be polite, 'entry level'...I just had hoped to get away with not busting anything a bit longer...

off to search downhill wheel sets...

thanks! I'll look into it. I know the component set on this bike is, to be polite, 'entry level'...I just had hoped to get away with not busting anything a bit longer...

off to search downhill wheel sets...

I don't think you need to go with a downhill wheelset just for commuting. You can probably find a higher end hub and pair it with a downhill rim. Downhill specific hubs can be expensive and I'm not even sure if they'd work on your bike. It's been a long time since I worked at a bike shop.

Yah...Upgraded hub with downhill rim, heavy gauge spokes...After looking at things a bit, thats what I'll do. For now the new hub will be covered by warranty while I gather the upgades needed for a new rear wheel.

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it..!

How are downhill rims and hubs different than normal?

Downhill rims are generally really wide to accomodate tires up to 3 inches wide and the rim often has a heavier build as being able to pedal a downhill specific bike is not really that important. The plus to running a really wide rim is that when you are running "normal" tire widths (i.e. 2 inch slicks) the sidewall of the tire is not bulged out, I have found this helps with preventing sidewall damage on my tires.

A downhill oriented rear hub is usually built a bit heavier as well, often with a bolt on axle rather than quick release and the pricier units have more engagement points in the freehub so they are in theory less likely to slip. The front hubs use a 20mm through axle for added strength/stiffness.

For commuting these sorts of wheels are usually overkill and the additional rotational weight is not appreciated when trying to get up to speed.

I had this guy working under me who was an athletic 270 lbs. He destroyed everything until we found him a downhill frame and wheels. We modified these for cross country riding and he never had a problem.

Chris Kings maybe? They're good for 800 ft-lbs. I'm thinking about going this route myself since I have broken about 10 wheels in the last couple of years.

Sounds like the prawls in the hub went out but without seeing the hub I could not tell ya for sure. I have seen and also destroyed many my self.

Good hub recommendations, ChrisKing, Hadley, WOOdman all make a nice strong rear hubs. There are others but those are the ones I use on my DH and XC bikes and they have not let me down in ohhhh 8 years or so.

Hazz

Downhill rims are generally really wide to accomodate tires up to 3 inches wide and the rim often has a heavier build as being able to pedal a downhill specific bike is not really that important. The plus to running a really wide rim is that when you are running "normal" tire widths (i.e. 2 inch slicks) the sidewall of the tire is not bulged out, I have found this helps with preventing sidewall damage on my tires.

A downhill oriented rear hub is usually built a bit heavier as well, often with a bolt on axle rather than quick release and the pricier units have more engagement points in the freehub so they are in theory less likely to slip. The front hubs use a 20mm through axle for added strength/stiffness.

For commuting these sorts of wheels are usually overkill and the additional rotational weight is not appreciated when trying to get up to speed.

Hmm, something I'll need to keep in mind. I'm getting a touring bike built and a friend gave me the specs for wheels he had built specifically to tour on, but he's a little guy (135 lbs) and I'm not (~250 lbs). Add to my mass the bags etc from loaded touring...

Ran across this thread and wanted to cross post for anyone else searching for information about hubs:

http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=355761

According to Sheldon Brown Shimanos are the best and the strength of a mtb hub comes from the spacing more than from the construction.

Any other problems - sounds like it was a defect.