WestcoastPete

Gudday

So I was cleaning and servicing my fiance's Capreo equipped Bike Friday the other day. It all came together sweetly with it's new SRAM RD and shifter setup, plus a new chain and brake pads, and a good old clean.

Afterward though, I noticed a new noise when I was riding beside her. With a bit of investigation, I determined that it was coming from the Capreo rear hub and I thought "bugger, I've got a bit of the car wash stuff into the bearings, no worries, I'll strip it down and grease it up again. She'll be right..." So I stripped it down. What I found though was, to me at least, a bit strange. There should be 9 bearings on each side of these hubs, but I only found 8 on the non-drive side. I've stripped hubs down a few times before, and was very careful to ensure that none dropped out when I was unaware. The sound of one bearing missing would perfectly explain the sound I was hearing.

Now, I've heard of old campy track hubs being put together with a bearing missing, and this Capreo hub has about 1000kms on it, half of it fully loaded touring (on pavement), so it can't be that bad. The cone and cup surfaces look clean and even, just as you'd expect on any hub.

Is this a problem? Has it been done on purpose? Should I reassemble it with the 8 bearings or put in a 9th? (I wouldn't just put a new 9th one in, I'd have to replace them all if I did that.)

Thanks for your help!

Peter

cny-bikeman

I would put in 9 new ball bearings on each side. No reason to go to 8 - fewer to share the load and they sometimes make extra noise knocking against each other. Who knows if done on purpose.

WestcoastPete

I got an email back from Bike Friday regarding this, just stating that yes, there should be 9 bearings in the drive side. I'll get some new bearings and put it back together as such, but is there any problems with running a hub with a bearing missing? Has anyone heard of it being done on purpose? Most importantly, is my 1000km old hub, with it's clean looking bearing cones/races, actually not damaged?

Ta.

DMF 

If it's making noise, I wouldn't ride it until you get it fixed. They won't knock against each other unless mis-sized, so the noise is likely the inner race falling onto the hole between bearings. Actually, now that I think about it, that's another indication that you may have mis-sized bearings, i.e. the sizes don't match closely. I'd replace all 18 from a new batch.


FWIW, there seems to be an urban (and suburban, rural, and wilderness) myth out there that removing a ball from the race will make the bike faster or something equally stupid. But most likely this was an assembly error.

wrk101

+1 Stop riding this bike and fix it. Replace all 18 bearings, they are cheap.

zzyzx_xyzzy

It should have 9, but I'm not sure how a missing bearing would make noise?

Booger1

One missing bearing will hurt nothing.It should be filled/less one ball.

cny-bikeman

The hub can make slightly more noise because the bearings move further before knocking against each other. Not a big deal.


One less ball may not hurt anything but the full complement will run smoother. Fill less one ball is not correct, unless you mean fill until the last ball will not fit in. There's no need for that on a rear hub anyway - takes 9 1/4 inch balls on each side.

[QUOTE=WestcoastPete;10899209]... Most importantly, is my 1000km old hub, with it's clean looking bearing cones/races, actually not damaged?.[/QUOTE

How are we supposed to tell that, and what is "clean looking" Bearing track should be perfectly smooth and of even width.

WestcoastPete

Got new bearings today and rebuilt the hub. Everything is tickety-boo...