Originally Posted by
Badger6
4000 miles can be a lot or a little...I'd suspect in England (with weather similar to mine here in Belgium), that's a lot. I replace a few wheel bearing each year (fortunately they're cartridge types and they're easy to [press out and back in).
It's never been an issue for me before. I had to have a Mavic free hub serviced because it had developed the dreaded squeal. I'd probably still be riding that wheel now if someone hadn't rear-ended me. My Campag Chorus hubs have done thousands of miles with no issues at all. I was planning to replace the free hub on my Vision Team 35 wheels, which came with my bike, but when I took the axle out it came apart in my hands. The axle on those is screwed together in the middle and the thread had stripped - it was only being held together by the QR scewer. The cost for the replacement parts made it not worth fixing. That wheel had done a much higher mileage, however, and was well out of warranty. Even on that, although the free hub bearings were very noisy there was no significant play.