Road Cycling - I killed Ultegra!

Well maybe I was just unlucky, but the bearings in the front hub of my new wheelset started to disintegrate during my sunday ride, re-enforcing my reputation as the hub killer.

Shimano Ultegra 0 Ed holland 1

I dismantled the hub to find some destinctly non-spherical ball bearings on one side. There was still grease present, in pretty good shape apart from some debris from the break-up. Fortunately the cups and cones had survived without damage, so I think the problem was caught as early as possible. I re-assembled, taking care to allow play for the axle compression caused by the quick release and everything seems smooth. A lucky escape.

This was rather disappointing, since I have only had the wheels for about 5 months, in that time putting a couple of thousand miles on them. I'd had very bad luck with Sora hubs in the past and was hoping that moving to Ultegra would give a significant improvement in reliability. Perhaps it this was just a freak bearing failure?

I would be interested to here if anyone else has had difficulties in this vein.

Cartridge bearing hubs seem to be the way to go - I have a "posh" wheelset with Hope road hubs - absolutely fantastic, but these are no longer manufactured. I have another a set of wheels built using Deore MTB hubs (fairly conventional cup and cone technology) and these have run many trouble free miles by comparison to the Ultegra and were clean & smooth at the last service. Can anyone suggest good hubs, based on experience, that will stand up to every-day use.

Sorry for the long posting, I'd be grateful for any input.

Cheers,

Ed

You could consider using an MTB hub (front axle spacing is the same) I have done for several years on my touring bike, reckon to get 3+ years with no maintenance

I own a couple of Ultegra wheelsets and while i think they're good hubs they're not in the same class as the Campagnolo Record ones i have on my Eurus wheels. Yes you can buy lighter hubs if you're prepared to spend lots of money but you won't find a smoother, stronger, more beautiful or more reliable hub in my view. Campagnolo Record hubs, taking every factor into account are the best.

Cheers for the responses folks.

I would like to have a Campy setup somewhere in the future

Reliability is my main aim here. Whilst I enjoy many many miles of road cycling, lightness and top line equipment are not of major importance - Witness my beautiful, fast & very reliable Sora equipped bikes ;). The things, in my experience, that seem to suffer most after miles of year round use are wheel hubs. I've had good luck with one wheelset built up on Shimano MTB hubs, and another, very fortunate, sale purchase built on Hope Technology hubs. I was surprised then, to be let down by the Ultegra stuff, although I was lucky to find this set on sale also.

Thanks again,
Ed