Rear hub?

[Jisch]

I haven't yet torn into the XT rear hub on my bike. It almost doesn't matter. I have Hopes on my other bike - 4+ years of abuse, zero maintenance and still smooth like butter dripping off a hot biscuit (Primus).

I'll likely get this XT hub functional again, but I can't stand the thought of having to maintain something like this when I'm used to maintenance free.

So, besides Hopes, what is a good hub with cartridge bearings? If all else fails I'll buy a Hope, but I'm wondering if there's a cheaper alternative. A rear Hope hub is $149 or so. Now that I think about it, I've never had a hub go bad on me before, though with rim brakes on all prior bikes, I probably bought a complete new wheel before the hub blew out.

John

[GV_MTBiker]

I was looking for a good rear hub under $100. I ended up just saying the extra $50 was worth it and went for a Hope XC myself. However I did see a couple promising options: Halo Spin Doctors ($84), and Woodman Bill-LTC Hubs ($75). Both on Universalcycles.com.

[Redsars]

I had to replace all the bearings in my rear Hope hub once, started squeeking like crazy. Hope did send me a complete set of bearings free of charge, and once replaced, have had at least 10 years of trouble free operation.

[Jisch]

I rebuilt my hub - it worked out ok, as many warned me, I had to put it together four or five times before I got it right.

As I was putting my wheel back in I noticed my brake pads (Hayes 9s) were worn down. I rushed down to the LBS and got a set of pads 10 mins before they closed. No matter what I did the brakes rubbed. I did the ride on Sunday with my brakes rubbing - it didn't seem too bad at first, but soon I was gasping and walking what I should have been able to ride. I finally got them to work, but only after I blew out about 10,000 calories. I was tired.

Then my middle chainring bent - which I worked on over and over, never getting it right - meaning I had to ride the last half the ride in granny. Once home I found that there were two bends in the ring.

Then today I did a ride and it seemed that my troubles were behind me. Still something didn't feel right. I pulled my crank to check things out and what do you know my bottom bracket has a ton of play in it.

This bike is a year old, seems that everything wore out at once.

And thanks to Slider for putting up with my troubles.

John

[SloMoJo]

Another advantage of not riding as much is your stuff last much longer. ;)

Good show keeping at it J.

[Jisch]

I rebuilt my hub, which included tear down, grease and new bearings. An online tutorial showed 9 ball bearings on each side. The LBS tech where I bought the bearings said 9 on each side. When I pulled the hub apart, I found only 16 bearings (that's 8 each side for you mathematicians out there).

I went with majority rule and put 9 in each side (9 easily fits).

I was relaying this quandry to my mechanical engineer friend (who is also a biker) and he told me that the way to do it would be to put as many bearings as would fit, then pull one out - which would get me back to 8.

So - with a Shimano hub - what's the correct number of ball bearings on each side?

John