Hope Hub Bearing Wear

[mattr]

Depends on a lot of things. I've (personally) never owned a hope hub that hasn't had bearings that have lasted a minimum of 12 months all weather off road use. Quite often i just replace them for convenience. Rather than having to muck around mid season sorting them out when i have better things to do with my time.

Some, when demoted to training wheels have gone 3 or 4 years plus with no issues or roughness.

On the flip side, a mate was running identical wheels (exactly the same) bought from the same place about a month after i got mine, it's gone through bearings every 6 months, generally with less use than mine had. And less cleaning (still no jet wash).

I reckon one of the tolerances is out slightly.

Both using decent bearings (buy good SKF in bulk from the factory shop.......)

Short version, if you get a good one, with decent bearings, and good tolerances they should last ages. If it seems to eat bearings, get rid while it's still a new/current model.

 

[Bullpup]

Why not remove the lip seal and pack with decent grease?

 

[hamster]

Normally they are pretty well packed if from a decent maker. Usually prising out the seal distorts it and it won't seal decently again. I agree it can keep an ageing set usable for a while though.

 

[Bullpup]

I suppose that depends if they are a simple rubber type seal or a stiffer composite seal?

 

[mattr]

And 50% of the time you'll damage the seal getting it out (or getting it back in).

Normally they are pretty well packed if from a decent maker.

Depends what fill level the specification asks for.
Bike hubs are fairly near the bottom end of the speed/load spectrum for bearings like this, so they could get away with a lot better fill than some ask for. Had some from the factory (Bagged up as American classic IIRC) with just a smear in.

 

[RobMac]

Re:

Its looking like (at a guess) the wheels were serviced about 3 or 4 years ago, but I've got so many bikes that the bike in question hasn't done loads of miles. Just had a thought, most/all of my bikes are kept indoors I wonder if central heating has any bearing (bearing lol) on the matter.

 

[tufty]

For the cost of a bearing, why would bother trying to tear the seal out and, in all probability, destroy the bearing in the process?

If you want to regrease your bearings, something like a 6001-Z (single dust seal) as opposed to a 6001-2RS (assuming 6001 bearings, I think that's what most Hope hubs take) and chuck grease into them regularly from the inside of the hub or pull the bearings and repack them.

At work, I have a "park" of around 400 bearings that are exposed to fairly extreme weather (although not to mud and grit) running 7-8 hours a day, 7 days a week, 8 months of the year at similar speeds and loads to MTB hubs. Regularly greased (as in "twice a year because it's a pain in the arse to do") Z-class bearings certainly seem to last longer than the same bearings in 2RS - started seeing catastrophic fails of the Zs after 5 years, but I still have around 25% which have not been replaced after 8 years. The 2RS bearings we started replacing them with have almost all been re-replaced. Zs failed with cracked balls (fnarr) leading to total lockup, the grease in the 2RS bearings "washes out" eventually, the bals and races rust, and you end up with "crunchy" rotation and a lot of play.

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

For the cost of a bearing, why would bother trying to tear the seal out and, in all probability, destroy the bearing in the process?

If you were going to regrease the bearings, why would you "tear" the seal out? I have done it several times, hub and suspension bearings, using a sharp pin/needle, get the point under edge of seal till it's under flat part of seal and gently lift it out. If you cause any distortion to seal, the flat part, it is easily fixed by laying it on a flat surface to push it back into shape. Be careful and all will be OK, there's no need to "tear" anything. Even if you damage a seal the bearing will be OK, (how are you going to "destroy" it?), put seal back in and refit bearing back in hub/suspension with that face of bearing away from the elements.

 

[hamster]

At £6 a pair from my local bearing factor I simply replace them as I cannot be bothered faffing around with seals.

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

Re:

I have just replaced bearings but when I've not had any spare I've resorted to removing seals and repacking, the bearings then seem like new so then don't get replaced when I do get new ones. :facepalm: I'm a skinflint. :mrgreen: