Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Surly hubs, what gives?

I just trashed another Surly flip/flop hub. What gives? Or what is it that I am doing wrong? Or what am I not doing that I should be doing? I love the hub, they are some of the best I've ridden I like the feel, and the composition, being able to flip to a different gear, and the different colors, but this is the second hub I've trashed, and I have two to go. Am I expecting too much? What sort of mantainence is needed for these hubs? Do the bearings just give out? I'm stumped.

How long have you had them? I have never dealt with these hubs in person, are they sealed or unsealed? What kind of riding are you doing?

When you say trashed what happened? Bearings shot.. axle bent.. spontaneously combust? I have a set of Suzue hubs and a set of Phil wood hubs on my fixies, not long enough to realy give a report on how well they will last.

i was going to get a set of surly hubs, but then i got tired of waiting for the shops to get them in (they were/are really popular, i guess), so i got phils.

i was looking at surlys because they are less expensive than most of the other sealed bearing hubs out there, and i like surly as a company. i think it's mostly a "you get what you pay for" kind of deal. there's no reason that i can see for why they should fail that fast though...if the bearings gave out, you can probably get replacements...if the threads stripped, you might want to contact surly about it. i'm sure they'd be more than happy to warranty the hubs for either reason.

What do you mean by trashed? Really, about the only way you could trash the hub would to be to strip the threads on it. Otherwise, you can replace both the bearings and the axle.

On my MTB I put over 1800 trail miles a year on them in harsh conditions, lots of water, lots of jumps. I've got almost 3 years on them and have had no problems. I need to replace the bearings about once year, which is an easy, cheap job. Solid hubs that just keep on trucking. When I stripped out the threads on my Sovos fixed gear hub I went out and replaced it with a Surly. No problems with that one either.

There was just a thread that I think may be related to this problem.

Thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=320783#post320783)

Well the only thing I can think of if you're have a bearing failure problem is that you are tightening them too tight when you adjust them. That would cause them to fail in short order.

thanks for the info. I looked the hub over, and it looks like the cone nuts came loose, as in I'd torqued the hub down in the drops, and the wheel spun the cone nuts loose. At least that is my best guess. I had recently flipped the hub, and wonder if in flipping the hub didn't put the forces in the opposite direction, and that is what did the trick to tighten the cone nuts and loosen them. Any ideas?

I have Surly hubs that aren't built up right now. Waiting for winter to hit so I can destroy my OEM Bianchi hubs. They came outta the box in need of playing with.

Flip flopping a hub, or even taking ur wheel out and mounting it back in with out proper cone tension could make it loose enough to where the bearings could unseat, or even get crushed. You may wanna take it apart and give it a look.