Do I Wait For Bike Parts Or Do I Tear It Down Yet Again? Both. A Sarcastic Look At Bike Repair.

I'm learning.  Some of the tech in my bicycle are truly old school for me.  I am used to a certain way of rebuilding a wheel bearing - you don't.  You clean the thing and when it gets noisy or slow, you pop the thing out and pop in a new one.

That is how it is done on an inline skate.  Bearings are a known quantity, and you can get them for about $1 a piece or less in bulk these days.  While you get what you pay for, the little steel donuts snap into the plastic wheel easily.

A bicycle wheel hub bearing, in my case, is a Cup And Ball affair.  You have to have specialized tools to get at the bearing because the whole thing is held in place by a washer against the balls.  A nut that is tightened against a second nut will brace it all together.

There are other variations on this theme that are more like my inline skates, and if these wheels did use those "608RS" bearings, I would know how to manage it.

I was warned to make sure that the wheel had an axle that was straight by rolling across a flat surface and make sure that I knew how far down the threads the two nuts were on the axle.  

Luckily I did have the presence of mind to count the number of turns to remove the one side.  

The whole two nut method seems a bit janky to me.  First a washer is threaded on the axle.  Then the first nut is spun onto the threads on the axle to a specific depth (hence the measurements in what had to be millimeters).  A second nut is spun on the axle until it makes contact to the first one.  The affair will work but you have to tighten the second nut with one wrench while the first one is held in place with a "Cup Wrench".  That wrench is a thinner one, in my case it was a 15 MM wrench from pressed steel.

Now to remove all of this, you have to use that Cup Wrench to hold the first nut and loosen the second (outer) nut.  This is all done with the wheel off of the bike preferably on a workbench and not in my kitchen sink.  Like I did.  

Because once you remove that first pair, your axle will drop into the sink and the old balls will disappear down the drains.  Luckily I was smart enough to line the sink with parchment paper and place a screen in the drain to catch the errant bearings.

Now that you lost one or two of the balls, or more, you are swearing at the Gods of the Sport that you hate this process and you understand why your local trusted Bike Shop charges you a $35 "Inspection charge". 

Get that paper towel you have over in the corner by the toaster oven, since you did decide that you didn't want to clear off the workbench when you used it to rebuild the sprinkler heads back in 2019, and are using the kitchen sink.

We did warn you not to do that didn't we?  Oh well, make the best of it just don't let anyone know you are using up the parchment paper.  If you do, you will have to get more if you ever want any more home baked goods.

While you are at it make sure you have your rubber gloves on.  The ones that you had during Lockdown from a couple years back will work if they haven't melted into a blue gummy mess.

Wipe out all the old balls from the cup.  Squirt the grease into the cup when it is cleaned with new lithium grease.  No, not the same ones you used in 2009 to grease the jalousie windows on the house, that stuff is dried out or spoiled.  Go to the auto parts store and get the new tube.  It's under $20 and will last forever.  Look for the NGLI #2 rating.

Don't put too much of the stuff on because you really only need enough to line the cup and hold the new balls in place.  Oh right, you did get new balls didn't you?  You didn't? Too bad.  Go online, you will probably want 1/4 inch balls to go in the wheel but luckily all this stuff is cheap.  If you can't wait, go to the nearest big Bike Shop and beg for at least 20 bearings per wheel.

Now that your bike is unusable because you don't have all the crap you need to put it back together, go have a beer and wait for the delivery truck.  Those Sports Gods?  They are really ticking you off by now.

Ok, so days later the truck arrives with your balls.  All 200 of them for cheap.  You will need about 9 of them per side.  The ones that fell down your sink trap are not needed except since you're replacing the darn things you need to count all that stuff out.

Your axle has the two nuts in place retaining the washer.  Squirt a moderate amount of grease into the cup.  Place the 9 (or so) balls into the grease.  Swear at the Sport Gods since you dropped one or more into an inaccessible place in the wheel or down the drain.  You didn't clean off your workbench again, and you are annoyed because you are running low on parchment paper.  Use an old shopping bag for now.

You do need a lot of help don't you?

Once you get the balls in place, and there are a lot of them, gingerly thread that axle through to the opposite side keeping the balls from falling down the sink or into your wheel hub.  Pull the axle through to make contact with the balls and you can safely flip the wheel to begin the process on the other side.  At this point I set the bike on the paper on the counter to hold the balls in the wheel.  It made it easier to do the second side.

Repeat your work squirting the lithium grease in the cup, and setting the new bearings in place.  Once all that is done, you can put the washer down the axle and then the two nuts.

You remember going nuts, right?  Spin the first one against the washer but not too tight because you will bind your wheel up.  If it is too loose it will rattle against the axle and you will not have a smooth ride - or worse.  Catastrophic failure of a wheel hub will give you a bad time.  Just ask my Orthopedic Surgeon.  He said my shoulders paid for his new BMW.

After all this is done you put the second nut on that side.  Using the famed Cup wrench, hold the first nut in place, then tighten the second nut in to hold the first one.  

Mind you, all of this has to be done to the same measurements you had before.  You wrote all this information down as you were working on it right?

I didn't think so.  

Now you are considering why you ride a bike in your adulthood in the first place, have grease all over your good T-Shirt and pants, and are swearing that the Sport Gods are really just out to get you.

But if you have done all this work correctly, the axle will not be too tight, it will not rattle when moved up and down or in and out, and you can spin the whole wheel like a gyroscope.

Now that you have done all of this, you have to realize I was talking about the front wheel.  The back one?  Let me tell you, Friend, you need a specialized tool to take the gearset off the back wheel.  You use a crescent wrench with a breaker bar and a hammer to loosen the thing as well as that tool.

Just button the stuff up and take it to the bike shop if you aren't feeling confident. 

In my case I am still waiting for the delivery truck.  There is a new gearset coming since the first one was a "Freehub" and not a "Freewheel" like I need.

Oh?  You are asking what is the difference?  Well that is the $14 question since I got the wrong type for the bike I have.

Freewheel has a ratchet on the inside of the gearset.  If you spin it it will make that ticking sound but it will not come off the gearset once you remove that from the bike.  Or, at least it didn't when I tried.  I did not have the best luck with this.

Freehub has the ratchet assembly on the hub of the wheel.  Your gearset will not have any moving parts.

So have I convinced you not to do this work?  I will say that after all is said and done, my parts are arriving tomorrow after my three time a week marathon on the bike.  I'll be installing it this weekend while my "Support Team" is in Sarasota Florida.  Lucky Them.

You have a decision to make.  It really isn't as bad as it sounds, and I am just a little bit cynical about it all.  I am very picky about having wheels that will swing like a pendulum when they are hanging on a bike rack.  A very light touch and they should spin freely like that.  Any noises mean it is energy that you are putting into the sport that is going to waste.

So yes, I'm a bit of a perfectionist.  Why not?  

If you will excuse me, I have a workout to squeeze in before the trials of the day begin.  Do what you have to to get a good workout on the trails, no matter your sport.