Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.mykvr6
07-16-09, 03:53 PM
Okay so its been forever since I've been on here but I've been lurking around a bit again as I have been wanting to get back on my bike. School schedule has been crazy but I need to get back on my bike since I've probably gained 20lbs or so since being in school. Anyway here's my problem. Last time I rode my bike I had a clunk from the front end. It started to clunk a week after I started riding it and the headset needed adjusting. Okay so everything was fine and I had a slight clunk in the front again. Checked the headset again and it seemed fine. Then I didn't ride for awhile. So then last night I figured I'd pull the bike out and investigate the clunk and get the back ready to ride again. Well I found the culprit. The front hub has some play in it and the free hub or axle tube or whatever it's called that rides on the bearings and is capped on each end is sliding side to side in the hub housing just enough to clunk. I pulled the skewer and pulled the wheel off and pulled the bearings and stuff out. Bearings seem okay but each aluminum end cap that slides on and keeps the whole thing together seem to be worn. They have a built in lip that butts up against the bearing and keeps the axle spinning so it wont get smashed when you put the skewer in and keep the wheel from spinning. Anyway, on one side the lip on the cap is smashed pretty much flat so it's not spaced out right. Not sure if I can get parts for this hub or not. My bike has novatec hubs on it. Thats what came on the bike when I bought it. I thought about just changing the hub but I don't know how to really build a wheel and I'm a broke college student right now and cant really afford to take it to the bike shop to have it done. I can't seem to fine parts for this damn novatec aka joy tech hub either. I found some inexpensive shimano hubs but again, I'd have to lace the wheel all over again. I'm a big time do it yourselfer and work on my cars and everything else but i don't have much experience working on bikes. I guess what I need is some advice or some help. How hard is it to replace the hub? Or does anyone know where I might be able to get parts for this hub. I can't seem to find any info on their website and they don't even list dealers in the US. The bike a Diamonback so maybe i can call them and they can get me parts. Any thoughts?