exas

TWO questions

1) on the wheel itself, the two bolts that keep the ball bearings inside the axle space, how tightly should i let them go in? just until the axle doesn't slide left and right anymore? or more tighter/looser?

2) and on a different topic, how tightly should i mount the wheel to the fork then? as tightly as possible?

jsharr

yes, adjust the cones until there is no play in the hub. then tighten down the lock nuts. and wheel to fork, yes, tight as possible.

xzelia

the "cones", so you've repacked the hub, you then put your axel in and put the cones on, you tighten them both until they can't go anyfurther but you want 0 play in the axel/hub, and you want it to spin with little resistance (if this makes sense), so you then put on your lock nuts. once they're locked on see how it spins and how much play there is; if there is no play and it doesn't spin well (it's to tight) take 2 17mm wrenches and loosen the whole assembly (lock nuts on the hub are usually 17mm), vice versa.

electricaltape

concerning wheel to fork... there is a limit to how tight. there is danger of stripping the threads on skewers. i've done it.

twobikes

When adjusting bearing cones I find it works pretty well to snug them up finger tight (with no wrench, yet) and then back the cone off between one-sixth and one-third of a turn. Tighten the retaining nut against the cone. Turn the axle with the fingers. There should be no roughness or sense of bearing balls rubbing hard against the races. There should also be no wiggle looseness on the axle. The problem is using wrenches on the cone and retaining nut sometimes causes a little slip on the axle and the cone goes out of your carefully chosen adjustment.

rmfnla

Wrong.

There should be a slight bit of "wiggle looseness" on an unmounted wheel because tightening the QR adds a bit of tension to the axle assembly.

When the wheel is monted in the frame (or fork) is when there should be no wiggle looseness (I like that).

twobikes

Thanks for the correction.

digger

Exactly! When the QR is tightened the play is taken up by the compression of the hollow axle. When you release the QR and take the wheel off, you should be able to SLIGHTLY rock the axle back and forth.

What is slightly then? All cones are differant, depending on the face of the cone. Best why is to compress the axle first, adjust cones so there is NO play, then when you uncompress the axle the cone/axle will rock back and forth slightly.

Read Sheldon Browns tips on adjusting cones and a home made tool you can make with an old cone and piece of axle. https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cone-adjustment.html

As for tightening the QR, the proper way to ensure tightness is to adjust the nut on the right side so that when the QR lever is 90 degrees to the wheel you THEN start to feel resistence, then just close the QR from there.

rmfnla

I live to be right (except for my typing; "monted"?).

z415

Just make it as tight as possible in terms of you being able to take it off. If you are an averagely strong person that would suffice. I know that if I don't have to pry with my fingers to get it open, it happens to slide out a little when a hop big logs.

Plus it'd be pretty useless it you can't take them off.

Oh, and this is different than "as tightly as possible" because, as far as the 6 sets of skewers I've used, it is easier to close than to open.