Are American Classic Victory 30s known for having crap bearings? I use them on my Scott which gets less use than my commuter. Despite this the wheel bearings have worn out 3 times in the last 2 years or so. At about £150 less, the Mavic Aksiums used on my commuter have never had bearing problems even tho they have often been used on damp and salty roads.
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Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
Yes, they are rubbish bearings but it is your fault. They are too small for the job at hand and have been designed like that because people judge wheels by their weight, not their worth. The mantra is that the lightest wheels are the best wheels. Well, to make them light, something's gotta give and with ACs it is just about everything. They have rubbish aluminium nipples, rubbish small bearings and ridiculously thin rims.
Having said that, they are standard industrial bearings and you should not pay more than 20 pounds for a pair in front and maybe 40 for the two or four (depending on whether you were changing the freewheel's bearings as well) for the back ones.
Having said that, they are standard industrial bearings and you should not pay more than 20 pounds for a pair in front and maybe 40 for the two or four (depending on whether you were changing the freewheel's bearings as well) for the back ones.
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Glad you mentioned that. I once had a warranty job replace the spoke nipples. By the sound of things Im better off buying another wheelset. Reliability is hugely important for me.
Anyway not being very knowledgeable on this sort of stuff, is there anything in particular I should avoid or look for when buying a set of wheels? I purchased the AMs because I the original Alex wheels were very dogs**** and I liked the AM Classics.
bonsaibilly
Guest
Considerable amounts of pseudoscience followed by recommendations of several very expensive wheel sets! Most useful! BB
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
Was seeking to offer some additional knowledge to satisfy this request:
Without more detail on the type of riding @RideLikeTheStig does, I thought it inefficient to do more and thought reading the article would help (him think about it himself). Which bits did you think were best left in Pseud's Corner? But feel free to add value by offering RltS your advice.
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
Unless the OP rides Iron Man or specializes in time trials, the type of riding he does, no matter what, will have no bearing on the wheels he chooses.
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
'Type of riding' - poorly phrased - mea culpa (had in mind light touring/audax/sportives/dry commuting/outperforming clubmates on Sunday hills). Your earlier post gave him some implicit steers. I think the article might add to his corpus of knowledge and maybe allow informed consideration as to what's important to him eg cost, robustness, weight, rim width/design and material, hub quality, 'look' (cosmetics). With the utmost respect @Yellow Saddle you too (ie like @bonsaibilly ) have shied away from offering advice to the OP, much as I did, I surmise for the same reason "thought it inefficient to do more".
bonsaibilly
Guest
The advice I offered was to ignore the article you linked to, and as the op already rides both mavic and AC wheels I surmise they know as much as that article says already.
Neither of us have offered any specific response to the op, your advice was to read an article full of general duff about wheels, and mine was not to bother. BB
Neither of us have offered any specific response to the op, your advice was to read an article full of general duff about wheels, and mine was not to bother. BB
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
We surmise differently. And forgive me for, to an extent, bothering.
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
[/QUOTE]
You are of course right.
@RideLikeTheStig . This topic has been debated here ad infinitum and I don't want to rehash it again, even if it is now technically a year since the last big wheel fight here. My advice is thus:
1) Stick with the wheels. For the cost of a few bearings every year or so, just stick with them. The AC freehub is easy to service, the bearings are easy to replace yourself and the wheels are no better or worse than most high-end lightweight wheels. Go for a ride and forget about the wheels.
2) Once they wear out or the next repair involves a new rim, bin them. Then have someone like @Spoked Wheels build you a set of standard wheels based on standard spokes, hubs and rims which will have a long service life and requires standard (i.e. non-proprietary) spares.
Fussing about wheels is a bit like a teenager fussing over the colour of his Subaru WRXZWY brake calipers. It is pointless.[/USER][/QUOTE]
You are of course right.
@RideLikeTheStig . This topic has been debated here ad infinitum and I don't want to rehash it again, even if it is now technically a year since the last big wheel fight here. My advice is thus:
1) Stick with the wheels. For the cost of a few bearings every year or so, just stick with them. The AC freehub is easy to service, the bearings are easy to replace yourself and the wheels are no better or worse than most high-end lightweight wheels. Go for a ride and forget about the wheels.
2) Once they wear out or the next repair involves a new rim, bin them. Then have someone like @Spoked Wheels build you a set of standard wheels based on standard spokes, hubs and rims which will have a long service life and requires standard (i.e. non-proprietary) spares.
Fussing about wheels is a bit like a teenager fussing over the colour of his Subaru WRXZWY brake calipers. It is pointless.[/USER][/QUOTE][/QUOTE]
Took off the front wheel to try to find out what bearings I will need. I was able to get one end cap off but not the other. Does the end cap on the non drive side need to be knocked out using some sort of punch? Cant see how I can remove it.
@RideLikeTheStig . This topic has been debated here ad infinitum and I don't want to rehash it again, even if it is now technically a year since the last big wheel fight here. My advice is thus:
1) Stick with the wheels. For the cost of a few bearings every year or so, just stick with them. The AC freehub is easy to service, the bearings are easy to replace yourself and the wheels are no better or worse than most high-end lightweight wheels. Go for a ride and forget about the wheels.
2) Once they wear out or the next repair involves a new rim, bin them. Then have someone like @Spoked Wheels build you a set of standard wheels based on standard spokes, hubs and rims which will have a long service life and requires standard (i.e. non-proprietary) spares.
Fussing about wheels is a bit like a teenager fussing over the colour of his Subaru WRXZWY brake calipers. It is pointless.[/USER][/QUOTE][/QUOTE]
Took off the front wheel to try to find out what bearings I will need. I was able to get one end cap off but not the other. Does the end cap on the non drive side need to be knocked out using some sort of punch? Cant see how I can remove it.
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
I can't recall exactly how those end caps come off butusually the one comes off just by pulling on it. The other one is probably press-fit and stuck to the axle. Drift the axle out using a hard plastic mallet or copper hammer. Hold the wheel in your left hand with your hand over the axle and fingers gripping the spokes just over the hub. Now with the other hand smack hard with said instrument and the axle will come out. It is important to give one hard smack rather than many soft ones in order to minimize the damage to the axle. Don't use a steel hammer.
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
Like I said, on many of these wheels the one endcap cannot and should not be removed. Just drift the bearing off it if the bearing is still stuck. The bearing code you need will be in relief on the bearing seal - the blue or black or red plastic bit. It will be a numeric code with an alpha suffix such as 6082RS2
The first bit of the code tells you the bearing's dimensions and make-up and the second bit the type of seal, in this case, RS2 for Two rubber seals. On some bearings you'll find an LL code, that's Chinese for Lubbel Seal times two. Basically, you want bearings with rubber seals, not steel caps denoted Z.
If you have the code, you don't need to take a sample in to the bearing shop. You can replace the caps and ride until you have the new bearings in hand.
