Bicycle Mechanics - My 4 month old hub is getting overhauled!

I had been having problems with my cassette wobbling plus going up a mountain at the end of the group ride today there was this horrible metal grinding metal sound. I take it in to my lbs and the guy says it needs overhauled and shows me the hub, which is completly funked up with grease and dirt. I can't believe this. I thought hub overhauls were a possibility after about 15,000 miles or something way up there. I got mine in late april and have probably between 1500-2000 miles on them. I am calling the guy who built my wheels, mike from oddsandendos to talk to him about this because it seems pretty ridiculous if I am going to have to overhaul the hub 3x's a year. They are the speedcific hubs. Anyone else having this problem? I don't ride in the rain, I have gotten caught out in it twice, one time was pretty hard, could that have done it?

2000 miles sounds to me like a good time to repack the bearings in a hub. If you are riding on dirt a lot, maybe even sooner. There is no way I would let even a road bike hub go 15,000 miles between repackings.

What do you think the guy who built the wheels could have done differently? There's only one way to install an axle and bearings. If the hub was new, the bearings would have been installed at the factory anyway.

It just seems way too soon to be dealing with hub issues in my eyes. So I'm going to need to repack the bearings alost every other month? That seems ridiculous. Granted I don't know too much about hubs. I live in Arizona where it is really dry so would that be a cause? I don't ride off road with my road bike so I am not riding in dirt on a daily basis. What's repacking the bearings? He showed me the hub after he had pulled it apart and it was pretty disgusting. Plus I don't think bearings would have anything to do with the cassette wobbling would it?

Plus I don't think bearings would have anything to do with the cassette wobbling would it?
Separate issue. Always the possibility of a defective hub.

Cassetes will wobble...how much is relative to the quality of the hub.

Repacking hubs? Mine are on the third repack.....12 hardcore months and 2,000 miles...MAX.

Whether you think it's too soon or not, there's little that can be done about it. I am not familiar with your hub, but there are hubs with sealing rings around the cones to help keep dirt out. There are hubs with sealed bearings as well. Any of these would require either new wheels or a rebuild of your existing wheels. My road bikes do not have any special sealing features and I repack the hubs about once a year (approx. 3000 miles) and do not see anything unusual at the time. The grease is brown from dirt and wear, but not particularly gritty to the feel.

The best thing is to learn how to maintain your bearings and do it yourself. It doesn't take much longer than cleaning and lubing the chain.

I had to repack mine at about 500 miles on my bike which I purchsed in November 2003 with about 100 of those miles on dirt, the rest pavement . Things were a tad loose, and dirt had started to get in, so I repacked it, retorqued and have put on another 800 with no problems. I assume the bearings on yours went to hell shortly after it started wobbling, at which point it should have been fixed.

repacking the hub takes 1 hour, maximum, doesn't take any stress (and in fact, after you do it regularly, it's old hat and always feels good when it's done), and is free if you do it yourself. why are you whining about repacking a hub?

as for how often you have to re-pack it, that just depends on your environment. maybe it's real dusty where you live, who knows? your bike is exposed to more than a car ever is -- do you whine when you have to take your car in for a tune-up?

sd

I don't have a car so no I don't whine about that. Like I said, I have never dealt with hubs like this. My other wheels were shimano sealed bearings, I was used to just riding and knowing they would spin no problem. In order to repack the hub what do I need? I assume I would need a chain whip at least to get the cassette off right? Then are there any special tools for taking apart a hub? I'm not so distressed by the repacking as I am by the noise it made yesterday, the metal grinding metal, I thought I had done something really bad. I got the wheel back and now it makes that sound while just coasting. Not all the time but it will make it for a couple of revolutions then stop. Thanks for all the replies. The cassette doesn't seem to have nearly as much play as it did so hopefully I am set for a while. I'll see if my wheel makes the grinding noise on my ride tomorrow.

I don't have a car so no I don't whine about that. Like I said, I have never dealt with hubs like this. My other wheels were shimano sealed bearings, I was used to just riding and knowing they would spin no problem. In order to repack the hub what do I need? I assume I would need a chain whip at least to get the cassette off right? Then are there any special tools for taking apart a hub? I'm not so distressed by the repacking as I am by the noise it made yesterday, the metal grinding metal, I thought I had done something really bad. I got the wheel back and now it makes that sound while just coasting. Not all the time but it will make it for a couple of revolutions then stop. Thanks for all the replies. The cassette doesn't seem to have nearly as much play as it did so hopefully I am set for a while. I'll see if my wheel makes the grinding noise on my ride tomorrow.

hmm.. you might be right. i just looked at hte speedcific website and their hubs are sealed cartridge bearings. you don't need to repack those, they should last a long long time. you don't re-pack sealed cartridge bearings... all u do is buy a new hub. definitely give those speedcific guys a call.

edit: hmm, is the cassette/freehub doing fine?

sd

I cannot imagine the cassette wobbling unless the cog rings are improperly seated in their splines or the ring that holds it on is loose. However in some old style free wheels pedaling on the small cog ring would automatically tighten it. To remove the Cassette you need a chain whip, a cassette lock ring remover, and a 12 “crescent wrench. Old style free hubs require two whip chains. To tighten the cassette you need only the lock ring remover and wrench. I would recommend that you refer to some instructions on this topic in such references as Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance. It is worth learning how to do it because if you bicycle long you will no doubt be changing cassettes from time to time because they are worn or just to change gear ratios.

I had been having problems with my cassette wobbling plus going up a mountain at the end of the group ride today there was this horrible metal grinding metal sound. I take it in to my lbs and the guy says it needs overhauled and shows me the hub, which is completly funked up with grease and dirt. I can't believe this. I thought hub overhauls were a possibility after about 15,000 miles or something way up there. I got mine in late april and have probably between 1500-2000 miles on them. I am calling the guy who built my wheels, mike from oddsandendos to talk to him about this because it seems pretty ridiculous if I am going to have to overhaul the hub 3x's a year. They are the speedcific hubs. Anyone else having this problem? I don't ride in the rain, I have gotten caught out in it twice, one time was pretty hard, could that have done it?
I used to have a Dura ace hubs, and I repack them almost every month it is a lot cheaper to repack the hubs than wait and let the bearing in the hubs to rub against its other with out grease, if this happens the hubs itself will be history........ and then you end up buying new hubs and rebuilding the wheels, as for the wheel getting wobbly, if you ride a lot of miles, you should check if the cones has loosen, and when you repack the hubs, the cones should be tigthen but not really tigthen and no play on the axle, and if your problem is you don't know how to repack hubs, that's another new ballgame, then you have to shell your'e moolah...

Just got off the phone with mike garcia. Turns out a couple of the hubs weren't being greased from the factory so he has started checking them all before he builds them up. He just started this recently. He said one other guy had similar problems to mine, the metal grinding noise, and actually rode his till basically the axle snapped from being grinded against metal. There was just cosmoline in the hub and it was dark gray because there was probably metal shavings which sounds similiar to what mine looked like. He also found another hub when he was going through all of them that hadn't been greased. He is sending me out some new parts, forget exactly what, so I don't have to worry about small fractures or anything in the hub. Excellent customer service on his part. For the record he said I definetly shouldn't have had to grease them yet since I only got them in april. Problem solved and good to know I wasn't the only one with this issue.

I don't have a car so no I don't whine about that. Like I said, I have never dealt with hubs like this. My other wheels were shimano sealed bearings, I was used to just riding and knowing they would spin no problem. In order to repack the hub what do I need? I assume I would need a chain whip at least to get the cassette off right? Then are there any special tools for taking apart a hub? I'm not so distressed by the repacking as I am by the noise it made yesterday, the metal grinding metal, I thought I had done something really bad. I got the wheel back and now it makes that sound while just coasting. Not all the time but it will make it for a couple of revolutions then stop. Thanks for all the replies. The cassette doesn't seem to have nearly as much play as it did so hopefully I am set for a while. I'll see if my wheel makes the grinding noise on my ride tomorrow.Have you considered the possibility you might have a bum hub and no amount of tinkering is going to make it right?? Get the service instrucions from the manufacturer or the guy who sold it to you.