Rear hub bearing wear - what's your experience

[Headshot]

The learning curve on this MTB activity of ours  never stops teaching you things, both technical and skills wise. I recently delved into hubs and hub servicing. It started when I noticed play in the rather budget rear hub on my Enduro's rear wheel. Play developed and a bearing or two felt worn. I eventually took it to Spaz in case there was a warranty issue as the bike only turned 1 today. No broken parts were found and a bearing was replaced and hub cleaned and greased. The shop say that rear hub bearing wear is common and some people go through them every two months. What?!?!

 

The bike hasn't been ridden nearly as much as my previous bike as I now have two bikes - the hard tail with a Funn rear hub has covered similar km by now and the hub is silky smooth.

 

I have a front hub that still runs without play although the bearings are slightly noisy. The matching rear hub is now doing service on its third bike and the bearings have never been changed after plenty of abuse over the last 5 years.

 

What is your experience of hub bearing wear? Is a year or 2 months reasonable bearing life or do some hubs just wear them worse than others...

[Jehosefat]

I just had to replace the bearings in the rear hub on my MTB after about 16 months of use. I'm pretty sure what killed them (and my chain, suspension pivots and front hub bearings) was riding on the beach for 6 days in a row at the end of September.

 

That said, there wasn't any play in the bearings, they were just sticky and rough.

[the nerd]

What hub is it? If its the Specialized branded one they are terrible. I eventually had to throw mine away and replaced it with a Novatec...

[BigToe]

The learning curve on this MTB activity of ours  never stops teaching you things, both technical and skills wise. I recently delved into hubs and hub servicing. It started when I noticed play in the rather budget rear hub on my Enduro's rear wheel. Play developed and a bearing or two felt worn. I eventually took it to Spaz in case there was a warranty issue as the bike only turned 1 today. No broken parts were found and a bearing was replaced and hub cleaned and greased. The shop say that rear hub bearing wear is common and some people go through them every two months. What?!?!

 

The bike hasn't been ridden nearly as much as my previous bike as I now have two bikes - the hard tail with a Funn rear hub has covered similar km by now and the hub is silky smooth.

 

I have a front hub that still runs without play although the bearings are slightly noisy. The matching rear hub is now doing service on its third bike and the bearings have never been changed after plenty of abuse over the last 5 years.

 

What is your experience of hub bearing wear? Is a year or 2 months reasonable bearing life or do some hubs just wear them worse than others...

A lot of bearing issues are a result of lack of maintenance - people are too scared to open it up and drop in ratchet lube or clean and regrets....a little love and staying away from high pressure washers means your bearings will/should last longer. Also how tight your QR or Thru axle is positioned can affect the squeeze and life of a bearing but less so. 

 

I've been through two drive side bearings in about 3 years (Industry9 hub)

Edited November 13, 2018 by BigToe

[droo]

Depends on the hub. Those Spez ones aren't great, but if they're properly preloaded and maintained they'll go for longer than that.

 

My favourite are Stans hubs, which can eat a drive side hub bearing in a week.

[ChUkKy]

Cannondale C-Zero rear hubs are crap, top shelf crap.

1 set of bearings lasted 1500km

 

Guy at the shop told me its normal for a rear hub, he did Epic and bla bla bla new bearings after Epic bla bla bla... I switched off.

I then told him my Hope Pro4 on my singlespeed has 5000km on it and the bearings have no sign of wear, which one is now normal?

 

The silence was deafening from the skinny Epic rider.

[V12man]

Depends on the hub. Those Spez ones aren't great, but if they're properly preloaded and maintained they'll go for longer than that.

 

My favourite are Stans hubs, which can eat a drive side hub bearing in a week.

I opened my Spez Enduro wheels when they were new, and the bearings had about no grease in - filled them up completely and they have been fine so far.

 

but - my favorite hubs are Hope - I don't see a reason to swap them out yet.

[dasilvarsa]

If the hub is sealed bearing type the bearings need to be replaced when they become noisy or rough it all depends if the bearing was exposed to soaps, degreasers, solvents and water or not.

Some sealed bearings can be cleaned and repacked with grease, a lot of people do this.

 

Cup and cone types can be kept going for many thousands of km just by cleaning and repacking with grease. If the grease is washed out you just do it again. The balls and cones can be replaced but if the seats are very bad the whole hub needs to be replaced. Adjustment is quite critical.

[Headshot]

A lot of bearing issues are a result of lack of maintenance - people are too scared to open it up and drop in ratchet lube or clean and regrets....a little love and staying away from high pressure washers means your bearings will/should last longer. Also how tight your QR or Thru axle is positioned can affect the squeeze and life of a bearing but less so. 

 

I've been through two drive side bearings in about 3 years (Industry9 hub)

 

 

I opened up the hub in question and there was no sign of water ingress or lack of grease - I avoid bike washes like the plague and its only been ridden in the wet around 3-4 times. Axle always tight too.

 

The experience is just totally contrary to my past experiences with the hubs I refer to above, which are not expensive items at all and never gave any issues. 

[Headshot]

Cannondale C-Zero rear hubs are crap, top shelf crap.

1 set of bearings lasted 1500km

 

Guy at the shop told me its normal for a rear hub, he did Epic and bla bla bla new bearings after Epic bla bla bla... I switched off.

I then told him my Hope Pro4 on my singlespeed has 5000km on it and the bearings have no sign of wear, which one is now normal?

 

The silence was deafening from the skinny Epic rider.

Yes, its amazing what stories the industry comes up with to explain rubbish design or manufacturing quality. Bearings are now consumables like brake pads and chain lube...

 

As I said above, my Funn hub which is a Hope knock off, is still as new after a similar period of riding to the Spaz.

[Robbie Stewart]

I posted the below in the "...Casette" thread, but it applies more to this thread. I ride a 2017 Camber Comp. Is today "Spaz let's sell rear hubs day" ?
 

"I just got a call from LBS . I booked it in for a bit of play on the rear wheel, and sommer a full-house service.

Sir, they say, your free-hub is in it's chops. We need to replace it. R1600 for the free-hub, new skewer and the service. Bike has around 1500 km on the odo...

 

_{<Cough, cough, splutter, splutter, weezes, wipes tears from eyes and goes and makes some extra strong coffee...>}

 

[i forget to mention, the techie also threw in the fact that the chain has passed 0.75%...leave it I said..."

 

[extra edit] - My HT, which has in the vicinity of about 6500 - 7500 kays on the clock is still running fine with the hub it came with when I bought it back in 2013...

Methinks it's a spaz thing

Edited November 13, 2018 by Robbie Stewart

[bikebloke]

looks to me that certain manufacturers are looking at what parts they can retro engineer to be as *** as possible without anyone being able to notice or point fingers ,they then sell you a bike knowing that the shitty bits will break really soon and they can take you for a mint in service / parts.........

 

i have wheelsets that are 15 years old- been thru plenty casettes and apart from a bit of grease and new bearings like once or twice and sometimes a pawl spring  ....they still going strong .

 

1500 k and the freehub/bearings  are shot ..even with a bit of mud and a possible pressure wash..that bulls**t mileage

 

isnt rampant commercial capitalism wonderful  

[Ozzie NL]

Cannondale C-Zero rear hubs are crap, top shelf crap.

1 set of bearings lasted 1500km

 

Guy at the shop told me its normal for a rear hub, he did Epic and bla bla bla new bearings after Epic bla bla bla... I switched off.

I then told him my Hope Pro4 on my singlespeed has 5000km on it and the bearings have no sign of wear, which one is now normal?

 

The silence was deafening from the skinny Epic rider.

+1 on Hope Pro4. Bearings are sealed so grease stays in ( even when cleaned with high pressure hose) and crap stays out

[TNOSE_E]

To be honest, the quality of the sealed bearings one gets now days is shocking!.

 

I open all my new sealed bearing before popping them in and add good grease...

you will be shocked at the little smear of Vaseline that is in a brand new sealed bearing.... 

[TNOSE_E]

And that is not only for wheel bearings....

Headset, BB, linkage and those unwanted C brothers from the other thread...

[DieselnDust]

Sealed bearing hubs life span depends on the quality of bearing fitted. Hope uses fairly high quality bearings and they’re greased at the factory during assembly. Nothing special. Any other sealed bearing hub can last long if the bearings are greased when new.

 

The best hubs are cup and cone but ya that’s too much work for the bike industry.

Novatec hub with a good bearing fitted with replaceable seals from bearing man and it’ll run forever

Edited November 17, 2018 by DieselnDust