Serious bodging on my second hand bike discovered

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johnnyb47

Guru
Location
Wales
Hi.
Last year i bought a very nice Specialized Allez bike. The seller told me that he had only covered around 50 miles on it and decided cycling was not for him and then relegated the bike to the garage never to be seen again until he sold it on to me.
The bike was in remarkable unused condition when i got it and ive now put around 5 k on it over my years worth of ownership The other day though the rear wheel hub started making some very peculiar noises. Creaking and cracking was the best way to explain the sound.
My ex brother in law has a wealth of practical experience with bikes, and kindly offered to take a look for me ,and discovered that the rear hub had been packed with copper grease instead of normal bearing grease. After cleaning it all out it was obvious the copper grease hasn't been to kind to the bearings or bearing face. The small particle of copper have left the bearing faces rough and slightly pitted.. As a temporary measure he reassemble it back together with some fresh grease and has offered to rebuild my wheel with a new hub when the time its needed. Its now running nice and smoothly again, but for how long is anybodies guess really. I think the moral of the story, is to always expect even new second hand bikes can hide some sort of hidden bodgery practices amongst there shinny looking components.. Granted its not the end of the world and can easily and thankfully for me be ,cheaply fixed, but i though i would just share my experience on here..
All the best
Johnny
 

DCLane

Found in the Yorkshire hills ...
You've covered 5000 miles on what is likely to be a fairly basic set of wheels - that's good going tbh.
 
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johnnyb47

johnnyb47

Guru
Location
Wales
You've covered 5000 miles on what is likely to be a fairly basic set of wheels - that's good going tbh.
Your absolutely right. They are a fairly basic set of Mavics, and in all honesty I'm supprised that they've gone this distance without them complaining . I wonder how many miles they will now go on for before they give up on me. Time will tell no doubt
 

screenman

Legendary Member
Went out for good long ride this afternoon. 70 miles completed and the wheel still seems to be running smoothly and quietly.It looks like my ex brother in law has saved the day again :cheers::bicycle:

So you could say the copperslip worked.
 

annedonnelly

Girl from the North Country
Went out for good long ride this afternoon. 70 miles completed and the wheel still seems to be running smoothly and quietly.It looks like my ex brother in law has saved the day again :cheers::bicycle:

Maybe you can now promote him from ex brother-in-law to "friend". Ex b-i-l sounds a bit like you only speak to him when you have to :smile:
 
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fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
I completely re-greased everything I could on my wife's 'new to us' MTB, just in-case, even though it hadn't been used much. The BB and headset definitely needed it.
 

yello

Guest
Still waiting to hear where the bodge is?

Must admit, that was my first take on it too.

Maybe I'm naive but I'd be baffled as to why someone would use copper grease, and I wouldn't automatically assume 'bodge'.

If you're otherwise happy with the bike, I'd just forget about it - albeit with a somewhat baffled expression!
 

I like Skol

A Minging Manc...
Sounds like a typical specialised hub to me. I would suggest the hub had not been opened and 'bodged' but what you are seeing is the result of the hub being shipped too tight at the start and the glittery brown grease is the result of the subsequent damage and metal particles being generated.

I have worked out that most hubs (even Shimano) are set up too tight. They might be ok on the bench, but once the QR is done up it compresses the axle and over-loads the bearings. I now back off the hubs on new bikes and haven't had a problem since.
 
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