Sticky rear wheel

roubaixtom

Hi,

Took the best bike out for a ride a couple of weeks ago and mid ride pissed it down with rain. Now, for some reason the rear wheel isn't spinning as freely as it did, i took it to a bike shop yesterday who apparently resolved it and it felt good in the shop however once put on the bike its back to not spinning very freely. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ben6899

I'm guessing the bearings somehow suffered on the wet ride.

The LBS probably serviced your bearings and adjusted them too tightly when rebuilding. So they spin fine in your hands, but when clamped in the dropouts they're too tight.

So I'm guessing you need to adjust the bearing preload.

pinno

That makes no sense at all Ben, no offence. The cones and bearing assembly are not going/should not move on the axle, however hard you tighten the QR skewers.

Tom - Take the wheel off. Spin it in your hand and then put a finger on the free wheel to stop it spinning - see if this drags and retards the wheel.

roubaixtom

The freewheel isn't dragging more than it should do u don't think.

pinno

Is it spinning more freely in your hands than it is mounted in the frame?

roubaixtom

Yes spinning more freely in hands when holding the hub

pinno

Then that suggestion by Ben is possible but I have never experienced that. :oops:

What is the hub and freewheel?

rolf_f

pinarello001 wrote:

Then that suggestion by Ben is possible but I have never experienced that. :oops:

It's pretty easy to do if you've mucked around with cones yourself. If it wasn't for the tightening effect, cones would be dead easy. The tricky bit though is, as Ben says, when you clamp them in the dropouts and they no longer spin freely - so you take them out, put a bit of slop in, clamp them up again and they wobble! Getting it just right is up there with indexing!

pinno

Rolf F wrote:

pinarello001 wrote:

Then that suggestion by Ben is possible but I have never experienced that. :oops:

It's pretty easy to do if you've mucked around with cones yourself. If it wasn't for the tightening effect, cones would be dead easy. The tricky bit though is, as Ben says, when you clamp them in the dropouts and they no longer spin freely - so you take them out, put a bit of slop in, clamp them up again and they wobble! Getting it just right is up there with indexing!

I have mucked around with wheels for donkey's. Never had a problem. My Campag's have lockrings and the old cone, threaded axle and locking nut were a piece of cake. Must be me.
Haven't taken my Dura Ace CL24's apart yet... In fact never serviced a Shimano wheel full stop.

Ben6899

Erm...

OP how you getting on?

rolf_f

Ben6899 wrote:

Erm...

OP how you getting on?

Lol.....

cycleclinic

An assumption has been made in this thread that hub uses a cup and cone bearing it may not.

If it cup and cone the cones should be set so there is tiny ammount of play so when the Q/R is tightened the play disapears. this is how you maximise bearing life. Even shimano hubs out of the box are not set up like this and they should be.

getting it right rolf is easy with a bench vice and axle clamp. If you do not have the tools for the job buy them or hand it over to a tame mechanic, it is worth doing either in the long run.

keef66

I think we're assuming cup and cone because of the symptoms described.

Have a read of good old Sheldon on the subject:

http://sheldonbrown.com/cone-adjustment.html

If you've never experienced the phenomenon of cup and cone bearings being OK with the wheel in your hands but too tight when the QR is done up, either you've been lucky so far, your bearings were too loose, or your QR nowhere near tight enough.