Currently walking the last mile home as rear hub has exploded somehow... Only a singlespeed too. Looks like bearing collapse.
Does anyone make a reliable maintenance free hub?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
another one bites the dust...
(27 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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Sturmey archer do a three speed that has stood the test of time, tho various varieties and variations
Posted 10 years ago # -
Singlespeeds are the only hubs I've had trouble with. Shimano Deore has performed years of trouble-free and maintenance-free service.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Crikey Dave, you've really had no luck there! Are you an out of the saddle drivetrain punisher up hills or something? ;-)
Posted 10 years ago # -
I thought singlespeeds were supposed to be ultra reliable compared to the artifice of a derailleur? :P
What exactly has happened? If it's a cartridge hub you can easily replace the bearings no matter how ruined they are. Or if it's a screw-on freewheel type hub you can get a new freewheel if that's the bit that's gone. If it's a standard cup/cone affair you can usually rebuild it as long as the hub shell isn't seriously damaged.
Of course, it may just be gone, beyond the reach of any amount of bodging. In that case I'll +1 the venerable Shimano Deore. Cheap, smooth, well sealed, and dead easy to service when it does come to it. You can get a standard cassette hub and put on a single sprocket with spacers, job done.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Aye, get a reliable touring hub, add a single speed conversion kit with good quality sprocket of your choice. Okay the rear wheel is needlessly dished, but it'll still be strong if it's laced to 36 spokes.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I was going to suggest that too. I'd buy a NOS Hope XC hub off the 'Bay and add a singlespeed spacer kit. Bombproof.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Alas, needs to be coaster since I don't have a back brake, although there are disk tabs. I have tried a single speed adaptor from my hardtail but it didn't clear the rear stays (they come very close to a single cog on a SS hub, which is fine, but adaptors seem to have a large profile).
That's the Sturmey 5 speed with coaster (destroyed), S2C kickback hub (destroyed), SRAM Automatix (destroyed) and now Velosteel singlespeed (destroyed) making this the least effective "low maintenance" bike I've ever owned.
I have a Sturmey 3 speed on the Hinged Wonder and it's really not reliable, it has a fourth 'no gear' in the middle where the pedals aren't connected to the wheel at all. This makes it impractical to ride out of the saddle as I'm quite fond of my remaining teeth.
I'm giving serious thought to going back to fixed, even though I promised myself after the Pearson that I would give it up as a bad job. The question is whether I can find a hub that would re-use the existing spokes...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Wee blue floofy's rear hub is needing some TLC, so that's two years of ~60 miles/week and one immersion in the canal without maintenance.
@allebong: I don't know how to tell what kind of bearings it has. Halp?
Posted 10 years ago # -
Happy times, the generic Formula / System X fixed hub will take the same spokes as the Velosteel, so that's all ordered up. Annoying to have to rebuild the damn wheel *again* after such a short period.
WRT the hub, I'm really not sure what's happened. The shell can move freely towards either drop out although both the reaction arm and cog seem to be fixed in place (and the axle is bolted solid). I'm wondering if the axle has sheared in half (the frame is spaced a bit wider than the hub so could then have sprung open, creating this illusion of the shell being able to wander about).
Posted 10 years ago # -
Dave, I don't know what it is you do to break these hubs. Other riders seem to get on fine for years. Maybe I mentioned this before, but could it be that your riding style just is not suited to these hubs designed more for pootlers? I mean how is it that Dutch city bikes or Raleigh 20s keep trundling on for decades on single speed coaster hubs or SA 3 speeds?
Yes okay, build quality not what it used to be, etc. but still I wonder if it's not the hauling out of the saddle every day up steep hills (and the associated extremes of torque) that destroys these hubs?
Posted 10 years ago # -
Perhaps, in which case they should really come with a warning saying they aren't suitable for general use!
The S5C is well known for falling apart - I was warned even before I bought it (but would I listen?). The S2C ships (or shipped) with a part missing, SA sent it to me but I suspect the damage had been done, as the hub exploded and locked up in the frame whilst riding (!).
The Automatix was great for ages, then stopped engaging low gear. I took it apart last night and a lot of different pieces fell out of the shell - have collected them for an obit.
The Velosteel is in a terrible state. It's like a lockring has vanished, allowing the hub's various parts to spread around on the axle, except as far as I can tell, nothing's missing.
By removing my rear mudguard I've been able to get a 26" spare wheel on there with a single speed adaptor I used to use on the hardtail. It's QR so not sure if it will stay in place on track ends, and it looks ridiculous, *and* it means I don't have a backup braking system (front or feet...) but it will do for a few days until I build up wheel 5.
The bike is just over two years old, so hubs last 6 months on average, ~2600 miles.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Dave has the maintenance free hub gear idea 'fixed' in his head? When I went for the nexus 8 that was what sold it to me. But again as crow says, they are all really for short flat poodles that will mean they go on for years. Had two nexus 8s (first was replacement within warranty). I then had the SA3 put in, with bodge as too small for space. However, I now use the bike for going to the shops, or if other bike being fixed. That works fine.
Posted 10 years ago # -
This reminds me that a friend had a Genesis with Alfine which failed so often (including throwing him into a hedge, IIRC) that he managed to get his credit card to refund it. If memory serves, EBC wouldn't honour the (Bike Chain) warranty.
That leaves Alfine 11 (low serial numbers), Rohloff (cheaper to hire someone to cycle me to work), and ..?
Posted 10 years ago # -
Dave, I suppose you might even try the Sturmey BWR hub which comes on 6spd Bromptons. It has an extra pawl arrangement that eliminates the in-between gear of the 'generic' Sturmey AW. Though being 'WR' means the jumps in ratios are quite big, which is why it's used with two sprockets.
Tulyar was measured at over 1000W recently, and runs singlespeed with a coaster brake. I think even he has had occasional problems with bearing life. The fact is that monster power output is beyond the reach of 'most' cyclists - but even so I'm amazed that manufacturers' safety factors in their designs are being run to so close (and indeed, beyond!).
Posted 10 years ago # -
Here's a revolutionary idea - a derailleur system. Reliable and saves knees. Okay it's not trendy but you could still get away with hipster gear.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Or eliminate the gears and the chain, and run direct drive! Er, maybe not.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@amir, I could buy a new frame and run a derailleur, sure. I'm some way off getting that past the Finance department though (unless someone wants to pay me a few hundred for my current battered frameset?)
I could ride one of the other bikes I guess, but the whole point of a commuter was that I could have a bike that's perfect for commuting and save all the others for joyriding. Time aside, the cost of these hubs is less than fitting a derailleur system anyway (£25 for the Velosteel and £25 for the fixed - the other two were more like £65 IIRC).
Nobody add that up and point out that it would have been cheaper to have a vanilla geared bike, now...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Well there's budgeting and then there's tactics ...
Posted 10 years ago # -
If you're serious about sticking with Donkey Lane, the WoL and the NEPN over the winter but dread the toll it woukd exact upon an exposed drivetrain perhaps carry one of those pump-up plant-skooshers for getting rid of builds-up of leaf mulch and path-sludge before you park up at work?
Posted 10 years ago # -
Posted 10 years ago #
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Well there's budgeting and then there's tactics ...
Look what I found in a skip dear! Yes, a mint condition frame, just ready to be built up... ;-)
Posted 10 years ago # -
At least all those intersting hubs you've reviewed to destruction will provide interesting fodder for you blog.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Sounds like a run of sheer bad luck Dave. Either that, or you're just going to need to start making "Ride like your Granny day" every day.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@kaputnik or should that be shear bad luck? I'll get my hi-viz coat...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Here's a revolutionary idea - a derailleur system. Reliable and saves knees.
^^^ This!!
Also you could tell the missus you sold a bike to a mate, who amazingly didn't get on with it and gave it back to you.... [whistles]
Posted 10 years ago # -
I thought all current SA 3 speeds had got rid of the no drive position.
Posted 10 years ago #
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