How are hubs supposed to feel?
 

I'm cleaning my bike thoroughly, so I took my front wheel off and the quick release out. Now, when I spin the locknut on both sides of the axle, it doesn't go... smoothly. It feels like there are tiny little millimeter increments that the hub spins in. And it feels like there's alot more resistance than there should be in bearings.

Its a 2009 Trek 7.3FX that I bought in april. There's no labels on the hub and all trek's site says is "Alloy front hub, Shimano RM30 rear hub".

Are hubs supposed to spin very freely by hand? Should they feel perfectly smooth?

They should be very smooth. Plus, with the wheel not mounted, there should be just a bit of side to side play (this goies away when the QR is tightened on installation). Lots of hubs are originally set too tight. I'd either take it back to the shop to adjust or do it yourself. Hopefully no damage has been done to the races.

I have had perfectly smooth hubs but they are rare.

Your hub is surely way too tight, though, because a correctly tensioned quick release actually has the power to compress the axle a bit, so the bearings get a lot tighter when the wheel is clamped in your bike. So, the bearings have to be adjusted with a bit of slack which goes away when the quick release clamps onto the axle.

There are little irregularities on even very good bearings sometimes and you can feel a lumpiness.


However, when the qr is removed the axle should feel loose. You can even feel it wobble just a little when there are no rubber seals to hold it in place, like on an older bike.

Get that thing serviced, or get some cone wrenches and do it yourself.

Anything Tiagra+ above will feel butter smooth when adjusted properly new. At any rate if the OP's bike is not new then either wear, or improper adjustment from initial assembly (or subsequent repairs) is likely to blame. I doubt most shops would take the time to properly adjust a loose ball hub on a $650 MSRP hybrid.

Agreed, very smooth. It seems that you may have over tightened the cones.

Sure, they feel smooth when the skewers are loose, but I have had new Ultegra hubs feel a bit lumpy.

Sometimes it's hard to tell because if the cones are properly adjusted, there is clearance when the quick release is out, and the rubber seals are what is supporting the axle.

I always check my cone adjustment by clamping washers in my quick release, so I know how an axle feels when it's at its working clearance. (then I readjust the quick release skewer to start to close at the same place in its lever swing when I put it in the bike, so the different thickness of the washer stack vs the fork dropout don't throw everything off.)

My point is, brand new they are adjustable to be *perfect*. Ignoring compression from skewers.

ok good. Are cone wrenches absolutely necessary? All I have are some crescent wrenches...

they are absolutely necessary to loosen the cones. crescent wrences aren't thin enough to turn the cones and you may wind up just loosening the locknuts which hold the cones in place.

On the plus side, since cone wrenches have to be super thin, they are usually stamped from sheet metal and are pretty cheap to buy.

Having it done would probably be pretty reasonable too, though.

Get on parktool.com or sheldonbrown.com or hit your local library. Make sure you know which is the cone and which is the locknut.

Yup. You need the thin cone wrench to hold the cone while you tighten the locknut against it. If your wrench is too thick, like a crescent wrench, you won't be able to do that.

guess I'll be hittin up my LBS tomorrow to get a quote on cone wrenches or a hub check.

thanks for all your help guys.

Buy the cone wrench and learn to do this yourself. It's not hard and it's really quite basic. Plus you'll have the wrench so you won't have any excuses to avoid doing your own annual hub strip, clean and re-grease.... :D

This is most likely the case. I can't think of any reason other than the fact that financially, the shops don't think you deserve a properly adjusted hub unless you spend a minimum dollar amount. They've lost touch with, and respect for that particular model's customer base.
Skipping hub adjustment tends to become a habit that's hard to break, so eventually, they don't bother adjusting any hubs at all, assuming anything over their minimum dollar amount has already been properly adjusted from the factory. If skipping this step saves time, they find even steps to skip to save more time.
I find it easier to take the one minute to adjust every hub. If this one minute adds up enough to endanger a shops financial status, they have bigger problems, problems which are more closely related to their philosophy on how price point=whether a customer deserves a properly adjusted bike.

Just about any bearing from the Chinese or (if you are lucky) Taiwanese (or if you are very very lucky, Japan or Italy) factory can be made smoother with a few minutes spent on adjustment. Since the hubs have a few months of use, I would recommend pulling them apart, cleaning, and regreasing. The cone wrench necessary to take apart a fron hub should cost about the same as paying a shop to do it, but take your time to figure out how to do it properly. Don't be a fraid to ask for help - either here, Parktool.com, sheldonbrown.com, your friendly tech at the LBS or a bike co-op, if you have one.

To be honest, probably none but the most dedicated experienced mechanics will take the time to make a hub perfectly smooth.
It may not be possible to make the hub perfectly smooth, but you can get it pretty godamn close.

Yes, if you are going to go to the trouble of adjusting the cones then also take the time to grease the bearings.

Old motorcycle mechanic here new to bikes.

The OP doesn't say what type of bearings are in the hub?
He couls just have contamination.
Or too many balls?
Did he rebuild?
Wromg parts?

If it was me buying a new bike, I'd ride the machine for a week , then set it up. The **** coming out of China has to be worn in/balls to races from what I am seeing.

Bicycles are crude compared to motorcycles. Especially the older ones. It's vintage mechanical tech IMHO. If I couldn't set up hubs and headsets with a cresent wrench and a needle nosed plies in a pinch I'd probably kill myself.

Pedals too. Crude.
bill

You may need new bearings and cones if you put some miles on the bike with the axle that tight. The skewer tightens it even more.

The roughness isn't the issue. A lot of bikes feel lumpy. the issue is that you shouldn't feel it while the quick release is removed.

If the bearings are shot, you will find some pitting on the cones. if so, replace cones and balls, if the cups in the hub don't also have pits. if so, there's not much you can do except replace the wheel.

Pits indicate fatigue, so even if they are slight, it will get worse real quick if you reuse the parts.

the Shimano RM30 hub is their entry level alloy front QR hub. It's basic, but the bearings, cones and races are actually rather high quality. Not Campag Record level or ceramic cartridge bearing level but remarkably good for the price it hits.

The hubs are adjusted a little too tight at the Shimano factory in SIngapore, where they are made by the gazillion.

Most shops in the US just pull the bike out of the box, do a final assembly and minor adjustment, maybe change the seat or grips as per customer preference. Adjusting and repacking bearings from a new in box Trek or Specialized are not on any mechanic or shop owners radar. Except for the truly nutty ones like us. It takes longer than 60 seconds to adjust cones, and hwen you are building 1000 or more bikes annually, that time adds up.
The few shops that still do a 'proper' build- tearing down the bike to the frame, confirming and sometimes correcting wheel tension, cutting down cables to optimum length, checking torque values on every fastener, adjusting and re-greasing bearings- are very rare. They value their service,and most likely don't give it away for free, so their cheapo entry level bikes will be a little more than the shop across town.

So, OP- your hub cones are not adjusted perfectly. Most likely, the cones, bearings and races are not pitted or scored- it's a new bike with not too many miles on it. You can ride for years on them they way they are. Bring it to the shop and ask the sevice dept if they can adjust the front hub bearings- it might be covered under their service 'warranty'. Or you can buy a 13, 14, 15, and 17mm cone wrench and adjust them yourself. Buy a tube of grease and change out the factory grease too. Sheldon Brown, Park tool, and many other sites and books can provide you with instructions, but this type of thing is best learned by doing, trial and error, etc.

I'm off to the shop to get wrenches now.

Any preferred grease? I live in a small town and the one shop here has rather bad mark up... will any grease from the hardware store be adaquate? I'm in college and would rather not spend more money, and just keep the bearings as is...

Thing is, you may not need grease. If you really want to take down the hub to examine the cones, you do need it.

Some sources say it's probably ok to put the cone wrenches on the cones and just loosen a slight amount.

That's instead of loosening a locknut, moving the cone back, and holding the cone while retightening the locknut.

If you go too far with the first method, put your crescent wrenches on the locknuts when you tighten.

be careful with how hard you turn the wrenches because it is possible the Shimano factory left the locknuts so tight that you'll ruin the threads. If they don't move with just some firm pressure, then don't use the simplified procedure.

Neither procedure actually requires fresh grease unless you back the cones out and wipe them off to look at them or unless you get some grit in there.

any good grease will probably do. It's probably not necessary to follow the stock advice to get waterproof boat trailer grease if your hub has rubber seals.

Go to an automotive-shop, or boating-shop, and look for marine-grease. It's used for greasing the wheel-bearings on boat-trailers that get dunked in water repeatedly. Or just suck it up and buy one tube of whatever brand grease the bike-shop offers.

a 3 oz tube of park or phil or pedros grease can't be that much and will probably be the last bit of grease you'll ever buy. A 1lb jar o white lithium grease from a hardware store will cost the same and you'll have 4 times as much, lasting you 4 lifetimes.
I don't mind paying the same amount for less qty- i'm not a glutton, and I'm only buying it 1-2x a year.

Shopping around for a 3oz tube of grease seems like a lot of effort to save a couple bucks. Is there a bike geek friend that has some you can borrow? and maybe his/her guidance?

Aw come on guys, now that I took it apart and see how a hub works, I totally don't need a cone wrench. Hold left lock nut with a wrench, take off right locknut with wrench. take off right cone. Pull entire axle out the left side. But I do see the value in having a $6 cone wrench to save the bit of hassle using needle nose pliers to hold the cone while tightening the locknut. The tool will last a lifetime, so its all good.

All of you were right, the cones were just too tight. I loosened them a little, and it feels much better. The axle had no side to side play before, but now it has just a tiny tiny bit.
I decided I'm not going to regrease them. I didn't take the bearings out and I just slid one cone off to look inside.

Thanks for all your help guys.

Someone on these forums a while ago gave me a tip for overhauling hubs that I think makes it much easier:

Regrease bearings. Tension bearings so you can feel the play but not see it. The bearings hsould be silky smooth at that tension. Install wheel and tighten quick release. With the wheel on the bike and the release tight, there should be no lateral play in the wheel, if there is, simply try tightening the release just a touch. Having a quick-release actually makes the bearing adjustment easier!

Searching for little tubes of "boutique" grease is a waste of time and MONEY. There is no such thing as "bike grease", irrespective of what some vendors would have you believe, it's really just repackaged auto or machine grease. For 2 decades now I've used water proof boat trailer wheel bearing grease that I buy at auto parts stores. Cheap, and I've never had any type of failure that could be traced back to the grease.