Mavic Aksium Cartridge Bearings Lifespan?

Soni

I purchased a new pair of wheels approximately 5 months ago and i've now developed a clonking noise when going over ruff ground.

I've eliminated the headset as a possibility, and checked the front wheel, and there is very slight sideways movement and it makes the noise when i pick the front of the bike up and drop it slightly onto the floor.

The wheels are Mavic Aksium 2010's with sealed bearings, surely they should have lasted longer? I am a heavy rider....?

The wheels can't be adjusted like cup and cone can they?

antfly

I think they can be adjusted just like cup and cone, but I could be wrong. I haven't needed to do it yet.

Soni

I think i've just eliminated the wheel, i've put another wheel on the front and its still doing it......

The problem is though there is no play in the headset, i've put the front brake on and rocked it front and back and also turned the hadlebars sideways and done the same thing and no noise, but as soon as i pick the front of the bike up a few inches off the ground and drop it - the noise starts.....

Any ideas? Its not the cables/housing, i've held the cables away and its not that type of noise anyway, its a dull clunking...

Buckled_Rims

Brakes? When you apply the brakes it'll clamp them to your wheel. Let go and they may be free to move.

sungod

fyi this has the details for the aksium front axle/bearings...

http://www.tech-mavic.com/tech-mavic/te ... s/2_11.pdf

...there is an adjustment, see steps 8 and 11


if the bearing are gone after only 5 months, i'd contact the retailer and ask about warranty


mavic tech manual...

http://www.tech-mavic.com/tech-mavic/te ... c_tech.php

sungod

ah, not the wheels

although you can't feel play in the headset, it may still be the cause of the clunks on rough ground, i've had exactly this on a couple of bikes

try this...

sit on the bike, hold the front brake on hard

put your weight 60:40 on the bars and saddle and shove back and forth HARD on the bars, if you hear the click/clunk then it's likely to be the headset - you may have to take your weight off between shoves to get the click to repeat

if so, try this...

loosen the stem, tighten the bolt in the cap a bit, not so far that the bearings start binding

tighten stem

repeat the shoving test and see if it still clicks

may need to repeat a few times to find the point at which the clicking stops

Soni

sungod wrote:

ah, not the wheels

although you can't feel play in the headset, it may still be the cause of the clunks on rough ground, i've had exactly this on a couple of bikes

try this...

sit on the bike, hold the front brake on hard

put your weight 60:40 on the bars and saddle and shove back and forth HARD on the bars, if you hear the click/clunk then it's likely to be the headset - you may have to take your weight off between shoves to get the click to repeat

if so, try this...

loosen the stem, tighten the bolt in the cap a bit, not so far that the bearings start binding

tighten stem

repeat the shoving test and see if it still clicks

may need to repeat a few times to find the point at which the clicking stops

H SonGod, just noticed your post mate.

Funny enough it DID end up being the headset!

Don't know quite what though, i removed the bars/stem, took the headset out, droped the forks out, and cleaned all the parts up because there was so much black mucky crap all over the parts/surfaces, washed them, dried them, regreased, put it all back together and now its all nice tight and snug and not the slightest noise when dropping the wheel 6" from the ground!!!

Cheers dude

ugo.santalucia

In modern bikes with threadless headsets, a noise from the front end is nearly always headset related.
Normally the stem comes slightly loose, or the so does the screw that presses the stem down (the latter shouldn't be an issue if the stem is tight, but it seems to be in real life) and the noise starts

I have to fiddle with my cross bike stem/cap every other month or so... quite annoying