Advice sought for rear wheel &/or hub issue

[recordacefromnew]

I’ve thought first of all that I should try to take a closer look inspecting the rim for signs of wear. I did quickly look at the rim to see if there was any sort of wear indicator on the Matrix 750 rims but I couldn’t see anything and so either there wasn’t a wear indicator or potentially more worrying the wear indicator was worn off a long time ago, if for example it was a line around the rim. I don’t have any tools to assess the rim wear but I’m going to read up when I can and do the best that I can to check it. If the rim seems fine then I’ll go ahead and order all of the parts above and give it a go myself.

You might want to check to see if your Matrix 750 looks like that in the pic below, if so it should have a wear indicator groove unless it is completely worn off, and it should also be easy to measure and compare the width in relation to 22.2mm.

If the rim is worn out then I’m tempted to be a bit extravagant and use this as an excuse to treat myself to something that I’ve been wanting for a while. I know that the idea of dynamo lights are a bit like marmite and lots of people have perfectly good arguments both for and against. However given the winter commuting that I do I’d like to try dynamo lights just so as I don’t have the constant task of charging batteries & lights.

Now only because I know that dynamo lights seem to be more popular / readily available in Germany than over here I started my search on the Rose Bikes website and they had this:-

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/shimano-dh-3n31deore-fh-t610-with-xtreme-sari-t-19-r-28700-c-atb-wheel-set/aid:716124

If the link doesn’t work it’s the following for £112 plus postage.

It is indeed a slippery slope, so if I were you I would check the width of the rim(s) and its condition carefully more regularly if you decide to patch it up and carry on riding it. As you have already discovered it is easy to spend close to £200 on just some parts, especially if you want dynamo hub wheels. However, as I mentioned up thread you can often get a reasonable new bike, with full warranty, for less, especially when you consider that your existing bike, whether patched up or in bits, is still worth something in the secondhand market.

Example new bike from Decathlon: http://www.decathlon.co.uk/hoprider-300 ... nformation

[Brucey]

the x-section dwg appears to show a rim with an internal wear indicator only and the image of the rim appears to show both internal and external wear indicators.... I've seen matrix 750 rims of both sorts and I've also seen these rims fail through cracking round the spoke holes, too...

cheers

[John_S]

Hi recordacefromnew & Brucey,

Thanks for the info in respect of rim wear.

I've taken a closer look tonight and actually I found that on the braking surface of the rim there was a faint line running around the wall of the rim. In respect of spoke holes I did give it a visual inspection and I couldn't see any cracking.

Back to the rim wear indicator line on the braking surface though and although it was faint it was just there and in places if I ran my fingernail across the rim you could just feel a slight indent where the line was. However in other places the rim wear line was very faint / almost not there.

I've tried to take some photos which I hope attach ok but I think that there's a 5 photo per message max so I might have to spread it over two messages. I appreciate that diagnosing rim wear by photos which are not great (because it was hard to focus on the rim) isn't the best way of trying to assess the wear on the rim but I thought that I'd post them just incase they're of any use / interest.

Thanks again for all of the continued help & advice!

John

[John_S]

Hi again,

Following my previous message the second set of photos is attached.

Cheers,

John

[Brucey]

if the wear indicator is gone or almost gone then you have had the best out of the rim, and it is really getting on for the time to have a new one. If you can measure the rim thickness (or infer it from the external rim width) then you can safely get a bot more use out of it perhaps...?

cheers

[John_S]

Hi All,

Following the above I've decided to try and do the maintenance myself. I'm hoping that the rim will last a little bit longer and if I have a go at the work from the YouTube video I'll hopefully learn a new skill that I can use again in the future.

I've watched the video recommended by milkonesugar and I've started to try and do the job but I'm struggling to get the freewheel off. Therefore I just wondered if anybody has any tips to help get the freewheel off?

I've bought all of the items kindly recommended by gregoryoftours and so I now have the freewheel remover tool. I'm also using an adjustable spanner that has a pretty long handle for leverage. However I've not got the luxury of a big bit of pipe to add to the spanner like the guy has in the YouTube video.

Any tips/ideas will be gratefully received.

Thanks,

John

[fastpedaller]

The best way is always to use a vice to hold the remover, and turn the wheel.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Fit the freewheel extractor tool to the wheel (not sure whether the spindle nut will fit on after the tool to retain it) then march down to your nearest garage or a mates and clamp the tool in the vice so wheel is like a steering wheel and grab rim with both hands.

Like I said then can be !$%&&&$£ tight.

[gregoryoftours]

Like other people have said, it's best to put the removal tool in a big vice and then turn the wheel (anticlockwise with the freewheel facing downwards) to undo the freewheel. If you don't have access to a vice and it's a really tight one then it really is pretty much essential to get some kind of metal pipe to lengthen the spanner - maybe an old section of steel bike frame tubing, or just get something from the local dump. If you're using the spanner method hold the freewheel remover in place with the quick release skewer - pack it out with big washers or something as you don't have the axle in place. Remove the skewer springs beforehand so they don't get squashed, and remember that you'll have to back the skewer off once the freewheel starts to loosen. Its best to leave the tyre on and inflated for this job, if you're doing it in a vice then it makes the wheel easy to grip, if you're using a spanner the tyre grips the ground while you're swinging on the lever, and you don't grind your rim on the ground. You can try spraying a load of lube down the back of the freewheel first to hopefully work its way into the threads. It's just a question of using enough force, and yes, they can be really, really tight. Get someone to help you if you can. If you really can't get it off you'll just have to service the hub and replace the axle with the freewheel in place, it's perfectly possible.

[John_S]

Hi fastpeddler, Natural Ankling & gregoryoftours,

Thanks for the advice and unfortunately I don't have a vice but I think that mu father-in-law might have have one so I'm going to pop over to see him today and fingers crossed he's got one that I can use.

Also thanks for the tip that I should do this with the tyre on. I should have thought about this before because yesterday I had the tyre off when I was trying to get the freewheel off and whilst I was trying various places to try & get a grip plus a bit more leverage I wasn't really concentrating on protecting the rim and stupidly I have ended up scratching the outside of the rim a bit but I'm hoping that I've not done too much damage. Logically it would have made much more sense to keep the tyre on but whilst caught up in the moment of trying to summon as much brut strength as I could (which wasn't nearly enough) I didn't quite think it all through and ended up with scratching the rim.

Anyway hopefully I'll be able to use a vice at my father-in-laws and have a bit more luck this time.

Thanks,

John

[John_S]

Hi again,

It's amazing the difference that having the right tools for the job makes.

I took the wheel to my father-in-laws and he had a vice. Having secured it in the vice I was able to get the freewheel off with relative ease having been unable to budge it at all when just using a long spanner.

Now onto the next stage of servicing the hub.

Thanks all for the advice & help.

John

[gregoryoftours]

I'm glad you got the freewheel off ok. Yeah the right tools do make a big difference - that's why it can get to be an expensive business, there are so many bike specific tools that only do one job on the bike!

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Glad you persevered
It will pay dividends for the rest of your life.

The good tools you only buy the once...........total probably less than a bike service.......................

[John_S]

Hi All,

I'm sorry to be a pain but with this being the first time that I've done this can I ask another question.

Tonight I've started by taking everything apart before I embark on cleaning everything. At this stage I've just got a question about the bit where the ball bearings are. I'm hoping that I use the right terminology but I've not certain so is the cup & cone?

Anyway on there was a sort of ring covering the bit (cup?) where the ball bearings are held. On the drive side this cover seemed to me to be quite misshapen and I'm wondering if I can reuse it again? If not does anybody have any tips as to what part I actually need and where I can get one (or a pair if I need one for both sides) from?

At this stage just before I've cleaned everything I've posted a few photos of how things look right now. I'm cringing in advance because it doesn't look great and I'll hold my head in shame because to my knowledge the hub has never been serviced. As mention earlier the bike is circa 2006 and it was bought new by a friend who used it for all year around commuting in all weathers and never cleaned it plus kept it outside. I bought it secondhand from him and I've used it as a daily commuter including all through the winter in all weathers so it's fair to say that the hub is pretty dirty.

I can post photos of the parts as soon as I've had the time to clean them if that's more helpful in terms of looking at the cone cover?

Thanks,

John

[John_S]

More photos of things before cleaning.