Do I need to fix my bearings?

[CopperCyclist]

I think I've identified the problem anyway... here's my symptoms...

Bike has developed a nasty 'rattle' when moving. Rattle can be heard whether I am pedalling or freewheeling, and also the 'clicking' part of the rattle I think I can feel slightly through my feet. At first I thought my BB was going, but as there is no change to the rattle when I stop pedalling and allow the bike to freewheel, I figured that ruled out the BB?

When I get off the bike, I can pick it up and shake it and I hear nothing at all. When I push the bike along, I can hear the rattle, but very slightly - its significantly loud when on the bike, and 'you won't notice it if you weren't trying' when simply pushing the bike along by hand.

When I spin the front wheel it's utterly smooth and silent. When I spin the back wheel, it seems smooth, but I can faintly hear 'clicks' that sound like the rattle, but it's very very quiet. Obviously this is with no weight on the bike - if the bearings in my rear wheel are going, does this follow that the rattle would be much louder with weight on the wheel, than simply lifting the bike up and spinning the rear?

Lastly, if the rattle is the bearings in my rear wheel failing, how urgent do I need to replace them? I'd be taking it to the LBS over rest days, but I have one more night shift commute in - can I risk it, or is it a problem that needs immediate attention and I shouldn't ride til fixed?

Many thanks for any help/advice!

 

[MrGrumpy]

I very much doubt it will die on you whilst cycling, of course the noise will be louder with load which can make it harder to spot of the bike. Could well be the rear wheel bearings, or the freehub body. If you are handy at all you may be able to loosen off the cones on the rear and squeeze some grease in their. The freehub body will require the rear cassette taken off so will need a special tool to allow removal.

 

[CopperCyclist]

I very much doubt it will die on you whilst cycling, of course the noise will be louder with load which can make it harder to spot of the bike. Could well be the rear wheel bearings, or the freehub body. If you are handy at all you may be able to loosen off the cones on the rear and squeeze some grease in their. The freehub body will require the rear cassette taken off so will need a special tool to allow removal.

I'm not handy at all unfortunately, I'm actually fairly useless. Changing tyres, fixing punctures, indexing gears and adjusting brakes are about my limit at the moment!

Nice to know it shouldn't die on my whilst cycling though, thanks. Means I'll probably do the last commute rather than get a lift off someone!

 

[fossyant]

Easy to service though.

Cone spanners, cassette remover and a chain whip. Oh and a 10mm allen key for the freehub.

Undo cones from non drive side, slide out axel, inspect, regrease replace if needed. Check cones for any major scoring. If you want, remove free hub with 10mm allen key (assuming shimano) and run some oil into it - if you can't remove, try applying oil to inside surfaces and work it in by spinning. Clean excess and regrease bearing surfaces and re-assemble.

 

[Ian H]

If you take the wheel out and turn freewheel and axle by hand, any play/roughness will be more apparent. Maintenance/repair depends on the make and whether you have cassette bearings or cup and cone.

 

[Hawk]

I agree that it seems to be your bearings.

EIther your bearing-holding mechanism (called a cone-and-cup system) has worked its way in to an improper position or a bearing has broken (this happens occasionally I believe).

Is the wheel sitting securely on its axle, i.e is there any "play" in the wheel side-to-side (not when the wheel is turning)?

If there is not then either a bearing has broken or the cone-and-cup is too tight. I'd possibly be weary of cycling at extremely high speed and carrying too much luggage in this scenario - this is because it suggests a bearing has broken or is extremely worn (possibly due to to a previous overtightening of the cup+cone). If your commute is relaxed then I would be OK.

If there is some play in the wheel that doesn't make you go "jesus, I've been cycling round on THAT?!" then it just means the cup+cone has worked loose. It's unlikely there's any excess damage to bearings and you are definitely fine.

Your LBS will probably replace the bearings in store (this is standard whenever any work is done on a hub), this should cost no more than £5 in parts...

 

[accountantpete]

The clicks you can hear in the back wheel sound like loose bearings - if bearings are not caged or sealed then they are put into the race loose and when pushed together end on end there is a small gap (so that they are not packed tightly).

What happens when the wheel turns is the bearings move around constantly closing that gap and creating another gap elsewhere and make a slight clicking noise in doing so.

I'd have a look at what you have - it may just need new grease or perhaps new bearings if they are making the noise.

 

[CopperCyclist]

Well, it was the bearings, and I ended up needing a new free hub body as well as it was badly pitted. Unfortunately my LBS is down a mechanic and have a backlog ATM, and said they wouldn't be able to book it in for about a fortnight! I thanked them but said this was too long to wait.

I then took the bike to... Halfords. I was a little worried, but the one guy there that knows what he is doing was in, and he had it sorted for me within the hour. Bike seems perfect again, and I'm off out on it shortly for the first proper test ride!

 

[G-Zero]

Well, it was the bearings, and I ended up needing a new free hub body as well as it was badly pitted. Unfortunately my LBS is down a mechanic and have a backlog ATM, and said they wouldn't be able to book it in for about a fortnight! I thanked them but said this was too long to wait.

I then took the bike to... Halfords. I was a little worried, but the one guy there that knows what he is doing was in, and he had it sorted for me within the hour. Bike seems perfect again, and I'm off out on it shortly for the first proper test ride!

CC, hope you don't mind me asking, but what kind of money were you charged ?

I've been quoted £70 to replace the Shimano XT hub (like for like) on my MTB, but don't know whether or not this is expensive.

 

[fossyant]

70 to replace a whole hub us good. I assume you mean freehub. Still not a bad price. When I replaced a Deore freehub, it was cheaper to buy a whole hub and remove the freehub and swap.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

 

[Hawk]

Replacing a freehub is not a difficult task, and the freehub body themselves are not that expensive ( £20-25 for a cheaper one) so I don't see where the £70 comes from?

 

[CopperCyclist]

For a free hub body replacement, and new bearing they charged me 37 quid - guess that's good then?

 

[Banjo]

For a free hub body replacement, and new bearing they charged me 37 quid - guess that's good then?

Sounds very reasonable to me.

 

[Hawk]

I would expect bearings to come to no more than £5/wheel, a freehub would be £20-25 (or a bit more), then +labour (though replacing a freehub and bearings is a quick enough task with the correct tools) so £37 seems more than fair

 

[CopperCyclist]

Well... straight after the free hub and bearings were replaced, the bearing in the jockey wheels in my mech failed, and I could barely turn the pedals. I didn't know what the issue was at first, so took it back to Halfords in case it was something they'd done to the wheel.

When they demonstrated that it was the jockey wheels that had failed, they initially replaced the SRAM Apex rear mech with a SRAM X4 rear mech. This then wouldn't index correctly on my 10 speed cassette. I questioned whether it was because Apex is 10 speed and X4 is 8 speed, but the mechanic said it wouldn't matter. In the end I asked them to just change the jockey wheels from the X4 mech not the Apex mech.

They said they'd do this, and I have the bike back in working condition again, everything indexing nicely... but I notice the two new jockey wheels are Shimano, so don't really know what they've done and why. Regardless it works so I'm happy - unless someone is going to tell me having Shimano jockeys in a SRAM mech is going to be a problem!