Archie
Errrr.....
That's me that is: I killed a nexus 8 today. (Shimano, not Tyrell Corp. admittedly.)
My hub had been sounding noisy when freewheeling for a while, so I took it to the LBS to get checked out. "Bearings gone" was the almost instant diagnosis, followed by an explanation on how futile a repair would be compared to buying a new hub. "How long have I got?" says I. "Can go on for years." says him. "Hmmm," thinks I, "not the way I flog it."
Sure enough, two weeks later I'm riding in the rain this morning and coming to the end of the commute the gears start making noise and freewheeling sounds nasty. "Need to check this tonight" thinks I. So after work I'm setting off, into 5th, "Chunk!". Pedals jam. 6th? Same. Great, 13 miles in 4th gear.
Set off, occasionally forgetting to leave 5th alone
. After 7 miles I've freewheeled down the other side of the "bastard" hill, stop at the junction, go to set off and "Chunk!". Oh poo. Dismount, cross, lift back wheel and run pedals. Rear wheel runs, but sounding really bad now. Shifting down to 3rd for the next small hill and things really feel bad now. OK, no more shifting so we now have a rather graunchy 4th gear freewheel bike now. 
3 miles to go and things are getting really ropey. Look down and Eek! the back wheel is visibly wobbly now! And there's some (well, more actually) resistance to pedalling. Press on, not daring to stop pedaling in case something else goes. We get to the road before ours and things are deteriorating rapidly now. Near our road I dismount and walk the rest of the way as the wobble has got to the point I'm worried about the wheel buckling.
So after tea I hoist the bike on the workstand. The drive side attached to the cassette has separated from the rest of the hub assembly! That'll explain the wobble then! Turning the pedals there's a delay whilst the rest of the hub catches up with the drive side. At the weekend I'll try to remove the hub and carry out the post-mortem, but in all honesty I'm not expecting much more than mangled cogs and bearings in a soupy emulsion.
To be fair, I'd worked out over tea my Subway 8 has done some 4500 miles, so it probably doesn't owe me much. All the same, I'm out of commission now, with no working bike and two "projects".
So if you've got to the end of this tale of woe and folly, spare a thought for me as you ride along enjoying the fine summer weather <ahem>.
My hub had been sounding noisy when freewheeling for a while, so I took it to the LBS to get checked out. "Bearings gone" was the almost instant diagnosis, followed by an explanation on how futile a repair would be compared to buying a new hub. "How long have I got?" says I. "Can go on for years." says him. "Hmmm," thinks I, "not the way I flog it."
Sure enough, two weeks later I'm riding in the rain this morning and coming to the end of the commute the gears start making noise and freewheeling sounds nasty. "Need to check this tonight" thinks I. So after work I'm setting off, into 5th, "Chunk!". Pedals jam. 6th? Same. Great, 13 miles in 4th gear.
Set off, occasionally forgetting to leave 5th alone
. After 7 miles I've freewheeled down the other side of the "bastard" hill, stop at the junction, go to set off and "Chunk!". Oh poo. Dismount, cross, lift back wheel and run pedals. Rear wheel runs, but sounding really bad now. Shifting down to 3rd for the next small hill and things really feel bad now. OK, no more shifting so we now have a rather graunchy 4th gear freewheel bike now. 3 miles to go and things are getting really ropey. Look down and Eek!
the back wheel is visibly wobbly now! And there's some (well, more actually) resistance to pedalling. Press on, not daring to stop pedaling in case something else goes. We get to the road before ours and things are deteriorating rapidly now. Near our road I dismount and walk the rest of the way as the wobble has got to the point I'm worried about the wheel buckling. So after tea I hoist the bike on the workstand. The drive side attached to the cassette has separated from the rest of the hub assembly! That'll explain the wobble then! Turning the pedals there's a delay whilst the rest of the hub catches up with the drive side. At the weekend I'll try to remove the hub and carry out the post-mortem, but in all honesty I'm not expecting much more than mangled cogs and bearings in a soupy emulsion.
To be fair, I'd worked out over tea my Subway 8 has done some 4500 miles, so it probably doesn't owe me much. All the same, I'm out of commission now, with no working bike and two "projects".
So if you've got to the end of this tale of woe and folly, spare a thought for me as you ride along enjoying the fine summer weather <ahem>.
