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Blew out a bearing on my rear hub doing a simple wheel swap yesterday
I was swapping wheels on a customer's commuter bike yesterday afternoon, nothing crazy. Went to tighten the QR skewer and felt that nasty grinding crunch through the axle. Took the hub apart and found the cone bearing had basically shattered, little bits of metal all through the grease. Took me 45 minutes to clean everything out and replace the bearing race. Has anyone else had a hub bearing fail just from normal wheel changes or did I get a lemon?
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gavinlopez13d ago
Read a forum post from an old mechanic who said most hub failures happen because people overtighten QR skewers when they're scared the wheel will fall out. You basically crush the cone bearing if you crank down too hard. Also heard that some newer hubs have thinner bearing races to save weight, they just can't take the same abuse. Might be worth checking if your hub is one of those.
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