Rear hub problems

dot1

my bike is only about 3 weeks old, and its an absolute b***h to climb, cant get any speed up and any speed you do manage to get disappears in seconds. narrowed it down to being the rear hub as when ive got the bike upside down and i rotate the wheel, it runs out of momentum after about 2 revolutions, where as the front keeps going and going and going.......

came to the conclusion that the bearings must be too packed with grease, so i took it all apart last night and there was a fair amount of grease in there, but its really thick and sticky stuff. i removed a load of grease and put it all back together but its still no better. what grease should be used for hub bearings? surely it should be quite viscous to allow the bearings to run properly? can anybody recommend me any grease that is any good?

lastly, is there a knack to getting all the bearings back into the hub without them falling out again before you replace the axle? took me ages last night!

jack.tremlett

Hi
Are you sure its not the rear brake rubbing and taking all the momentum out of your rear wheel. If not it sounds like you just have the bearing cones to tight, which put too much of a preload on the bearings. They just need to be tight enough so there is no play in the wheel, too tight and it causes the hub not to run smoothly.
I'm not sure on what grease to use in the hub , i just use normal bike grease which could be wrong :? . Hope this helps

Jimbo.

Any grease will suffice, as long as enough is used and it's "changed" often enough. If you're fussy, then Rock 'n' Roll Super Web grease is a good bet: it's teflon based (as opposed to lithium, which IME don't like water, emulsifying pretty quickly) plus it's sticky and stringy (meaning it adheres to the bearings and spreads around and between them).

As above, check the rear brake and the tightness of the cones.

dot1

yeah i know the rear brake isnt rubbing, and i know the cones arent too tight, as i only done them up finger tight and the axle was still really stiff to rotate :?

supersonic

Make sure the axle is not bent, and that the cones and bearings are not worn.

bikaholic

For loose bearing hubs, make sure that they are the right size and not damaged.

Inspect the cones and internal race surfaces.

Regarding the bearings falling out during installation - apply grease into the internal race surface of the hub, then just stick the bearings onto the grease in a circular pattern.

Use a magnetic small flat screwdriver (rub a screwdriver on a magnet) to place or fish out bearings if you have fat fingers.

nicklouse

my bike is only about 3 weeks old

take it back to the shop.