Sealed hub bearings - wear?

nmcgann

I have a cheap pair of wheels built around Ambrosio Zenith hubs (which are supposed to be good). These have sealed cartridge bearings and when they were new felt very smooth - almost unnaturally so (the wheel would rotate for ages when spun).

Well, 4 months and 1100 miles on and the front hub isn't feeling so smooth anymore. It still rotates freely and without obvious play, but there is a definite roughness to the bearings now when you hold the spindle and rotate the wheel. They have only done one wet ride, so I'd be surprised if it was water ingress.

I've had the end caps off so I can see the bearing cartridges and the seals don't look split. The axle appears to be pressed in to the bearings (which seems a daft idea to me), so it doesn't look an easy job to replace the bearing cartridges. I imagine they could be got out, but if the axle is pressed in then getting the new bearings in without damaging them is going to be very hard without some specialist press tools.

I'm inclined just to ride with them as they are for now and just keep an eye on them in-case they get worse - anyone else got any experience with these, or similar, hubs?

[In contrast, I just re-greased and adjusted some normal Shimano cup&cone hubs and that couldn't be an easier job.]

Neil