So I finished the ride last week and then went on another ride on Tuesday before the monsoons hit NE Ohio. Still the same feeling, now confirming it's not in my head, I pick the front end up and give the wheel a spin. It moves about 10 inches and stops, try again, same results. WTF? So I loosen up the cone on the axle and now the wheel is too loose. WTF? I also notice all of the grease from the moderately recent repacking of the front hub has oozed out of the seal. WTF?
So finally on Friday Lexi and I decided it would be a good idea to peel apart the front hub to investigate.
Lexi supervising
Side note: The wheelset on my bike consists of the original wheels that came on the 1997 TREK 5000 OCLV road bike. Who know Shimano 105 hubs and Aurora rims weren't meant to last for 12+ years???
I've also had quite the devil of a time trying to keep my front wheel tight and straight. The two things did not seem to go together. Either straight or tight, not both.
So I started to peel apart the hub, as I wiped away the excess grease ooze from the side of the hub I noticed shinny little flakes of metal. WTF? I pull of the first cone, luckily there was enough grease to still be a freakin' mess! As I clean the first cone I notice an odd marking. As you see from the picture below, the odd marking right where the bearings roll. Yes, the cone had collapsed. This was the cause of the metal shavings in the bearings, the slow rolling wheel and had a hand in ruining the grease seals that let the grease ooze out.
Broken Part
THAT'S IT!!!!
I had had enough of putting the band-aids on these old wheels. I had been eyeing up a new set of Mavic Ksyriums at Eddie's so I went for them. It was more than time and although I was going to try to hold out until the end of the season I bought the wheel. I also had to get new brake pads, my old ones (circa 1997) were past due, and I didn't want to tear up the new rims with old, metal infused, brake pads.
So I installed the new wheels with Lexi supervising and I stupid grin on my face I'm sure. The bike looked great so I took Maurice for a spin. The new wheels were AWESOME!!!! I rocked 23miles through the valley at a 16.6mph pace which I was very proud of! Let's see if I can break 17 by the end of the summer!
Enjoy the pics!
Old rear wheel
New wheel!
Maurice
4 comments:
Wow! Who knows how much additional work you did on the Tour de Cure to overcome that extra resistance!
Have fun with those new wheels.
Sweet - new wheels. It's always fun on the first few rides as you get used to them (and as you feel like you're screaming compared to the old ones!).
You're so savy. I brought my bike to the shop today and realized the problem was my stupidity... not the bike. Awesome.
Oooh, pretty! I wouldn't know the first thing about how to do any of that. My chain fell off last night,a nd I was pretty freaking proud of myself for being able to fix it. :o)
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