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Have you checked your wheel bearings? As long as the wheels are still spinning, everything is fine for you, right? This may not be the case. Worn bearings or degraded grease can cause resistance or even damage your wheels, slowing you down and eventually stopping your riding. The following is how to check the bearings to keep the wheels turning.
In terms of how often you should check the wheel bearings, everyone is different, but if you quickly check the smoothness of the bearings during the regular cleaning of the bike, you will be able to quickly spot problems before they cause more problems. problem.
The most basic way to check wheel bearings is to listen for a dull hissing sound, which indicates that they are dry. Just lift the front end of the bicycle with one hand and rotate the wheel sharply with the other hand to check the front bearing. The hand holding the bicycle can also feel any vibrations transmitted through the frame.
The rear wheel needs to be removed from the bicycle because hub noise and transmission system noise will prevent you from hearing any bearing problems. Hold the end cap of the wheel and rotate the wheel.
This is also the best time to check the shaft clearance. Put the wheel on the bike, pick up the rim and move it laterally-shaking it left and right. If there is any movement that exceeds the expected elasticity of the system, this may indicate bearing wear or (depending on the system) cone looseness.
Although this simple inspection can alert you to problems, a more thorough inspection is required, for which we will have to inspect the bearings. This is simple, but the exact method will depend on the type of wheel and internal bearing system you have.
Usually, the simplest system is a sealed box design. In many cases, this will be a simple process of pulling down the end caps-voila! – You can reach the bearing frame.
Access to the internal bearing requires removal of the bearing seal. Do this carefully with a thin knife. You are trying to lift it up as gently as possible, because any damage to the seal will cause water and dirt to enter the system in the future.
We are in! Now is the time to assess the condition of the bearings. Before you do anything else, use your index finger to turn the inner ring of the bearing. You will feel any roughness or seemingly small raised spots. If the bearing is just a bit rough, then you can try cleaning and relubricating. If there is any real resistance or bumps, the bearing is likely to have dents (eat in) on the bearing race. If this is the case, it needs to be replaced.
Likewise, if you can move the inner ring laterally (in and out of the hub), the bearing may need to be replaced.
After the seal is closed, visual inspection can be used to check the condition of the grease. First, there must be some! If the sand of time-or the sand itself! -The grease has degraded or dried out, then your bearings will like something fresh. A dry system can be repaired by cleaning with a degreaser and re-applying grease. Before applying new grease, let the bearing dry to prevent the new grease from being contaminated by the degreaser.
If you are dealing with the rear wheel, please use degreaser carefully because you do not want it to come into contact with the hub bearing. It is wise to delete freehub completely. This will give you access to the drive side bearings in some hubs, and it will also allow you to inspect the free hub bearings while disassembling all the parts.
Don't back down when applying new grease. You want to apply a lot of coating to the bearings, especially when the wheels are going to ride in all types of weather.
If the bearing needs to be replaced, it needs to be pressed out, measured and pressed back into the new bearing seat. Best practice shows that the proper tools are required to remove and install the bearing housing, which can be very expensive if you only do this work once a year. Booking your wheels at a local bike shop will be a more cost-effective method.
All Shimano hubs and other more traditional hubs such as Campagnolo use the cup-cone system. These require the use of special wrenches called cone wrenches. Although there may be slight differences between brands, the basic process is to fix the cone with a cone wrench and loosen the lock nut with another wrench.
After removing the lock nut and cone from the side of the shaft, you can slide the shaft out of the hub, but you need to be careful because the bearing may fly up, especially if the grease inside dries out and ends up miles away. Outside-usually under the refrigerator.
Magnets are very useful for safely collecting ball bearings, and don't forget to put them in a safe place, such as a bowl. Separate the parts on both sides of the hub. They can wear at different rates, and mixing them will accelerate wear. The ball bearings, outer ring and inner ring can all be cleaned, allowing you to check the wear of these parts.
Ideally, you should just repackage the cup with grease, spring back the ball bearings and tighten everything. The trick here is to tighten the cones until they are close to the bearings, eliminating any unwanted lateral movement of the shaft, but not so tight that the wheels cannot rotate freely. It requires trial and error, so take your time and don’t be surprised if the first attempt is incorrect.
If you have made field damage to the cup or cone surface, such as worn pits or grooves on the cup or cone surface, you need to replace the worn parts.
Unless you have ceramic bearings, which require very special grease, high-quality lithium grease (and a large amount of grease) will become a necessary condition for quiet and smooth rolling of the hub.
At this point, a grease gun will be very useful, because the nozzle will guide the grease to where it is needed to prevent waste. If you don't have one, apply grease with your little finger and try to press it between the ball bearings.
Although we are sure that some rolling resistance can be saved by carefully using special greases, unless you are using a racing wheel that can only be used in a dry environment, we recommend that you do not do this.
Due to the large number of wheel designs on the market, sourcing replacement parts for your wheels can seem daunting. The best way is to go to the manufacturer of the wheel to find the parts you need. Ideally, they will send you parts, but if not, at least you should now know the exact name of what you are looking for.
However, if you have a set of vernier calipers, you can easily obtain the required measurements. Loose ball bearings are measured using the diameter of the ball. If you measure the bearings from the Shimano hub, you may find that they are 3/16 inches.
The cartridge bearing is measured according to the actual cartridge size, not the bearing inside. Open the vernier caliper again and measure the outer diameter (OD), inner diameter (ID) and width (W). Put them together in this order (OD)x(ID)x(W), and you will get the replacement you need.
If you are really stuck, going to a local bike shop is a good choice. They will understand what they are looking at, take out the tools of the bearings, measure them and replace or repair them as needed.
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The son of a marathon runner and the nephew of the national 24-hour champion, racing genes have completely surpassed him. After joining road.cc as a reviewer in 2016, Liam soon started writing feature articles and news reports. After living in Canada for a while, he spends most of his time eating broth in the UK and abroad, although he prefers the muddy fields of mountain bikes. So far, his biggest game victory is to be at the front of the café queue.
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