How much to repack hubs?
 

Ive had the same wheelset for the last 3 seasons and the hubs have never been serviced. At the end of last season I started to hear a bit o' squeaking from the front one. How much does it generally cost to repack both hubs. This is the set I have, XT's.

Do it yourself. Will only cost you pennies for grease.

Armed with a few cone-wrenches from your LBS, some grease, and a simple solvents like Gumout carburetor-cleaner from a gas station - you can easily do this job yourself. You should also get new ball-bearings for the hubs: 1/4" rear and 3/16th" front. Here's what it takes to clean and re-pack your hubs:

http://bicycletutor.com/overhaul-wheel-bearings/

I use kingsford charcoal starter fluid. best solvent in the world. one of the cleanest too (i.e. no added chemicals).

pricepoint has a great deal on a set of cone wrenches: http://www.pricepoint.com/detail/148...ch-7pc-Set.htm

These have lasted me over a year of professional use with not a hint of damage. They're also selling individual ones for $4each.

Highly combustible solvents are a bad idea for obvious reasons. Mineral Spirits (paint thinner) is a far safer solution, is less volatile, and is quite cheap.

Just work in a well-ventilated area away from ignition sources like sparks and open flames. And that looks like a good set of cone-wrenches. Ideally you want to overhaul your hubs once a year. But more often if they have been submerged in water and exposed to heavy mud conditions.

So that's worth a small capital outlay to do this work yourself.

Highly combustible solvents are, first of all, not so highly combustible. If you take a match to it, it will light up until it fizzles itself out, unless its on a stack of newspapers on top of your bed with stuffed animals all around it roasting marshmallows.

Ahem, and what good solvents aren't combustible? They're all petrol based. Mineral spirits are also flammable. Do you use WD-40?: Yoga flame!

Kingsford is the best thing that ever happened to bike cleaning. I swear by it, and I've smoked many cigarettes near it. Its chemical free, so you don't get all the other crap that's in WD-40 and other solvents on your hands. You definitely don't need ventilation for fumes. Its thinner and easier to work with than mineral spirits. Its "odorless" and only smells when you put your nose up on it, and it gets the worst caked grease off with a mere wipe. The most pleasant degreaser to work with by far. If you let the fear of fire steer you away, you'll be depriving yourself of the best, cheapest, easiest to find degreaser around.

Good tip. I'll give a can of Kingsford a try.

Thanks!

Another vote for doing it yourself, tools/instructions here http://parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=105.
The tools and supplies are minimal.

Haven't had a shop do something like that in a long time, but shop prices can vary quite a bit just based on where they are due to costs of real estate, prevailing wages, etc. If you're a regular customer that can help, too.

We would charge about 30-40 bucks for a clean and repack at the shop I work at. New bearings, fresh grease, new cones if needed.

Thanks for addressing the OP. Does that 30-40 figure cover two hubs? (I'm pretty much with the DIY crowd but this thread got me wondering how much money I'm saving.)

I've been lmao'ing at that for the last 5 minutes, thx for the laugh Dhalsim.


And thanks for all the tips for the diy job. If I can rebuild a fork, I can do this.

Nothing cuts through petroleum grease like a petroleum product. True. But given the safety issues, and given that for most of us its hard to properly dispose of them, I really would rather use a little effort and go with Simple Green or a citrus cleaner of some sort.

And also do not forget that any rags you use with a petroleum product are a potential danger by spontaneous combustion unless properly handled. It really can happen, and the factors that lead to it are not as hard to come by as some people seem to think. Please be careful.

j

I'm not sure how much it costs, but I'm with everyone who says do it yourself! You'll learn a lot about bikes that way and have a fun evening-length project.

I shouldn't contribute to the solvent wars, but it's always too tempting. Whenever I can, I soak and brush parts in undiluted Simple Green, rinse in water, and allow to air dry. If the parts are polished aluminum (which Simple Green will corrode enough to haze) or I can't/won't disassemble the parts enough to allow for a good air drying, I'll use whatever petroleum-based organic solvent I have handy (I just finished a bottle of VM&P Naphtha). I use Phil Wood grease for bearings, ordinary lithium grease for other greased bits, Phil oil for things like brake pivots, and motor oil for Sturmey-Archer hub internals. I'm in flux about chain lubes. But it's worthwhile to remember: it's really fun to fight over which solvents and lubricants reign supreme, but it probably doesn't matter all that much in most cases.

I'd say the trickiest bit is cleaning the hub shell, since it's connected to the wheel. The way I do it is to wipe out the old grease as well as possible with a paper towel and then actually go to my bathtub and scrub it out with Simple Green and an old toothbrush. It's also a nice opportunity to get the rest of the wheel (tire, rim, spokes, outside of the hub shell) nice and clean too. Note, however, that you will probably need to clean the bathtub itself after this, depending on the hygienic standards of you and those you share the house with. :)

With respect to flammability, there may still be some chlorinated solvents on the market. They are high-strength and not flammable at all, though I really can't recommend them due to their environmental/toxicity hazards. Basically all of them cause cancer, and personally I'd rather use mineral spirits/charcoal lighter fluid/kerosene/whatever. They're really not all that bad given adequate ventilation and very basic safety precautions.

Charcoal lighter is mineral spirits. Since bicycle hubs, cones and ball bearings are free of heavy metals, I suppose you could still reuse the solvent, after you clean your hubs, to fire up the next weenie roast.

Can you guys suggest a good set of bearings for XT hubs?

I like McMaster Carr (www.mcmaster.com) for all my hardware needs.
Their Grade 25 ball bearings in bags of 100 are cheap.

I like these guys. Faster service.

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNPDFF...0&PMT4TP=*LTIP

Repacking and replacing the wheel bearings on a bike (front and rear) is a $40.00 service at my shop... it covers 1 hour of shop time (cleaning, repacking, adjusting) and the cost of new grade 25 bearings.

Bearings are rated by grade with 25 being the best steel bearings you can get and because of small variations in production runs one should always use bearings from the same batch.

I always find the most challenging things for folks to master is setting the bearing pre-load properly and knowing how that pre-load varies between nutted axles and those fitted with QR's.

$40 sounds like a pretty darn good deal.

Hell yeah it does. I just called 3 shops and it was $50 minimum not including parts!

My shop is MY shop... I only do repairs and service and don't have much in the way of overhead.

This is what I have been charging for quite some time and when I look at the time it takes and the parts cost I feel that is fair to me and to the customer.

Most shops have a $50.00 - $60.00 / hr shop rate which I think would be fair if they actually paid their mechanics a living wage.

I also volunteer at our bike co-op and the other afternoon a fellow brought in a front wheel that was not running very smoothly... I repacked and replaced the caged bearings with loose balls and charged him $5.00 for what was all of 15 minutes work.

The bearings at the co-op are also grade 25 and we use Park grease so the $5.00 more than covers the parts cost... my time here is donated but most folks are pretty generous and often donate a near market price to the co-op.

I wouldn't trust any shop to service my hubs are any other part of any of my bikes. At the shop where I worked, we were only allowed to use new bearings to replace broken ones. If a ball wasn't broken, it went back in. I'm sure that doesn't go on at most shops, but I have no way of knowing which ones I can trust. If I do it myself, I'll know it's done right. I'll save money, too.

That is shoddy workmanship and cheap to boot... good bearings are just not that expensive especially when you buy them at wholesale prices.

I have never taken my bike to a shop and the number of people I would trust to work on my bike are very few in number.

So you helped perpetuate the incompetent mechanic myth by not fighting your shops folly into false economy. And that is about as stupid as you can get in the false economy department. Charge a dollar more, replace all the balls, have a satisfied customer.

Like you I work at a Bike Co-op and I too find the public very generous. You may quote a price for a re-conditioned bike and they will say it's too low and give more.
I have to say I do get weary of working on low-end bikes all day but mostly I get weary from being on my feet all day in the workshop as I'm getting on in years.

Biketoolsetc. has cheap bearings and their service is awesome. I like to use the lowest-impact degreaser I can.

Bike shops in my area charge $20 for the front and $25 for the rear to clean and regrease. You don't need new bearings, they last forever. I would only use synthetic grease, doesn't get thick in cold weather, rolls easier, and doesn't break down in water. The hardest part is learning to set the right tightness of the bearings.

I am determined to start overhauling my hubs myself. I have Dura-Ace and Ultegra hubs. I intend to invest in some hub overhaul tools, but I am stymied as to what are needed.

I assume I need the following:

a) One 17mm Open Wrench

b) One 13mm Cone Wrench (Front Hub)

c) One 15mm Cone Wrench (Rear Hub)

d) A Finish Line Grease Gun and Synthetic Grease

e) 3/16" Bearings

f) 1/4" Bearings (Ultegra Rear Hub)

Could you please comment on whether all tools and supplies needed are covered?

Thanks for all responses.

Looks like you're all set as long as you have some rags and degreaser hanging around. A grease gun is nice but not totally essential. Smearing the grease in the hub with your fingers works fine. Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on the process. Have fun!