pwfish

I have an Orbea Enol bike that I purchased back in January. It has a sora groupset, and just recently I gota new bottom bracket and chain fitted. I am currently doing about 100 miles a week on it and have noticed a bit of a problem in the last 2 months.
A cracking or crackling noise has appeared everytime I drive down on the right hand pedal. It has progressively got worse, esoecially on hills, and sometimes occurs when I go over a bump. Initially I thought it could be the pedal but I have isolated the noise to come from the back wheel somewhere. The noise almost sounds like the spokes but I am not sure. Also, I have recently noticed that when I lift my bike off the ground and roll the bike wheel round, there is a horrible rolling sound, that sounds very much like a loose metal ball rolling. The rolling resistance on the back wheel has also got bad. Coupled with this, last night I grabbed the back wheel and tried to move it from side to side, perpendicular to the plane of the wheel. I noticed a slight knocking or a giving way, and I could move the rim from one brake shoe to the other.
My question is, are all these 3 things linked to the same problem or are they all independant of each other? What does it sound is the problem and what needs to be done to fix it/them? I would like to try and avoid having to leave the bike in, since I am skint. I weigh 12st and have been described as a powerful explosive rider.
Thank you in advance for any advise.

Berodesign

Pewh... one thing for sure, your rear wheel bearing needs adjustment, it if is a cup and cone type, otherwise I dont know, havent worked with more modern bikes but I guess you can change bearings. You should however NOT ride at all on that bike until you fix the rear wheel. Look at www.parktool.com in their repariment section or at www.sheldonbrown.com
I cant say for sure it the problems are linked, but you'll find out. Bothering about anything else then the rear wheel bearings right now is like bothering over a not working lightbulb at a nuclear power plant at the same time as the core is overheating.

Berodesign

Gosh I cant spell any longer

Ed Holland

PW - It certainly sounds like the hubs need urgent attention. My newer bike (also fitted with Sora hubs) suffered a very similar problem with front and rear wheel hubs. If you are very lucky the bearing races & cones are not damaged and can be re-packed with new balls & fresh grease. If you are unlucky, as I was, the bearings are permanently damaged. I was not at all impressed with the performance I got from these hubs - the main "let down" being due to very poor sealing, so they are not at all suited to all year/weather rides. The rest of this group-set has worked fine though. I would strongly recommend replacing your hubs with something further up the range, or another option is to use MTB hubs. I have a road wheel-set built on Shimano Deore hubs that have stayed clean and smooth for over a year between service intervals - and the hubs were little more expensive than the Sora parts they replaced. The expensive part of this would be the re-build of the wheel.

I do have some spare cones if you find you need them - let me know by PM.

Cheers,

Ed

matheprat

They all sound like they are connected. The problem sounds like your cones have come loose, meaning the wheel isnt held in place, but can move slightly on the axle. Possibly a couple of bearins have found thier way into the center of the hub.
Providing nothing is damaged, it is (usually) quite easy and cheap to repair it youself. Just a case of taking the rear axle out of the hub, putting in some new bearings, grease etc, and then re-assemballing it all. Things you will need to get: Something to take of the casette, cone spanner, and new bearings. However, it you're that skint, it 'can' be done without these tools, new bearings cost basically nothing. Take one of you existing ones along to your LBS and make sure you get replacements that are the same size. If any part of the actual hub seems loose, or missing, or you have any problems then take it to a bike shop.
Cheers

pwfish

Thanks Yall.
You have been very helpful. I will give my lbs a ring and find out how much it will cost for them to do the repair. It may work out cheaper, and better for my bike if they just do the job well. I am a bit annoyed though, because I had the bike in 3 weeks ago for a service, that cost me £63, and the problem wasnt picked up on then , even though I said that the crackling noise was doing my head in. Should they have picked this up? I asked them to have a general check of the bike and they charged me for that.

matheprat

They will probably fix it free of charge, if you have allready payed for a service, and it wasn't done.