Servicing Quando hubs

JJDLD

Hi all, Happy New Year.

My winter rear wheel (Mavic rim on a Quando hub) has started making a rumbling noise when freewheeling (I only noticed it yesterday when the bike was on the workstand) - it sounds like the bearings are dry. I've dropped the wheel out of the bike, and the axle rotates smoothly with no play, lumps or bumps. Ordinarily, I'd take it apart and have a look, but it looks like a sealed system - instead of having a usual cone arrangement with a washer with flat sides (i.e. for a cone spanner to fit on), the outermost washers on the axle are round and are held in place with a small allen bolt acting as a grub screw. Anybody got any idea if these are easy to servicen and refit? Are any particualr tools required over and above what is needed for a cup-and-cone hub?

Ta,

JJ.

Monty Dog

My experience of Quando hubs is that they are poorly built and sealed and in particular the freehubs are pretty awful. I pulled one apart and seeing the lack of any sealing, decided it was more expedient to fit a decent rear hub

andyrr

Have a couple of wheels with these : pretty cheapo hubs TBH but simple enough and worth servicing as long as they run ok still.
Loosen one side's locknuts, pull the axle to one side to give some clearance to stick some grease in then pull the axle to the other side and do the same. Tighten the nuts up again (just enough to leave a fraction of play.) Job for a few minutes but extends their life for a bit more.

JJDLD

Thanks guys,

I had another look last night and it sounds very much like it's the freehub that is making the noise (i.e. same noise occurs if you wind the cranks backwards without the back wheel moving). I'll keep an eye on it - does anybody know if I would be able to replace the freehub with a standard Shimano one (i.e. will the Shim freehub fit on the Quando wheelhub?). Or, I might just pop to Chain Reaction Cycles and look at new wheels!

Ta,

JJ.

Monty Dog

I couldn't find a spare freehub for the model I had, which forced me into a new hub. When freehubs fail it usually means no drive as the pawls go. You could try running oil into the freehub to try and lubricate it but it will only be a temporary fix as the sealing isn't very good.

JJDLD

Dear all,

Thanks for your responses re the Quando hub. In the end I decided to cash in some chips and picked up a new wheel from Spa Cycles (I got my Schmidt-hubbed front wheel from them 18 months ago and it's still straight as an arrow). So that's that poblem solved.

The problem now is that Spa had a titanium Sunday September built up - I had set my heart on a Van Nic, but the Sunday was bloomin' gorgeous!!!

JJ.