Rear wheel bearing keeps coming loose

a.graham52

a.graham52

New Member
I bought the bike brand new. All 70 miles has been with the engine kit on it. Rear wheel bearings start to show lateral play every 15ish miles. Iv filled the rear hub with automotive grade wheel bearing grease too. My old bike had over 300 miles and did not have this issue. Anyone have any good ideas?
 
sounds like a coaster brake - they are made for 11mph, at 30mph they get hot enough to push the bearing - throw a real brake on the front wheel
 
How are you adjusting for bearing pre-load? It sounds like they might be too loose from the start.

Tom
 
Give us the bike-model/manufacturer too. I have a Walmart Special that had its bearing-cup collapse after about 300-miles...I spent $10 on a good hub, and have 10X that mileage on it now.
 
I'm glad I asked: I THOUGHT it was the Genesis...it's what I have. The parts are garbage, but the frame is good. I weight 280, and carry about 50 regularly. The rear hub's crap...I mean REALLY crap. You can get away with the front hub, but that rear one's gonna cause heartache AS WELL AS THE SPOKES. The pedal-crank is garbage too. This all said, I've continued on the frame since I do like it. I haven't had pedal-power for about 6-months since the crank-sprocket's junk too. In any case, I now have a 44T on the rear, and my well-tuned engine can get me around and up-hills without he need to pedal ALTHOUGH I really need to get a good crank as it'll make starting easier, reduce stress on the engine, assist in hill-climbing.
 
Here're two pics from tonight...check out my gallery for history.

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kiosk, are you intentionaly holdign out on me about your hub upgrades? lol. ill be honest, iv never searched for bicycle parts upgrades and im not sure where to look, or what what be an upgrade and what woudlnt be. im sure just about anything is an upgrade over stock hubs though.
 
Not holding out, just not sure of the manufacturer. Bought it as a spare-part from bike-shop. You can see and feel quality; visit a shop near you and get a deal.
 
Incidentally, I have TWO Genesis Two-Nines. I bought the second since it was the most economically feasible means of replacing my rear-rim (also, I'd have spare-parts). Before I was adept in tuning that bike's V-brakes I ended up ruining the wall of the rim when those cheapo brake-pads wore down. Buy some good pads. Also, since I replace about 5 spokes a month, and because the crank-sprockets on these bikes are shyte and will eventually fail you, I have for the last few months been riding without a chain and have also removed the rear-wheel sprocket cassette. The wheel's quick-release, so it makes maintenance much easier. I found the front disc-brake to be junk as well...I don't even have it hooked-up anymore...for over a year.
 
I'm hoping you just have a lemon. I'm not surprised the rear pads are crap. They look it. What was wrong with your front brake and your sprockets?
 
so i went to the local. a new 700c wheel was 75 bucks. a hub was 35 without spokes or having them install the new hub and spokes. i got talking with the guy and he recommended i make darn sure my axle isnt bent and also to make sure the bearing saddles are locked effing tight.

so i bought proper wrenches. inspected the axle (it is bent slightl) and locked the saddles as tight as possble. im going to give it another try. if it fails ill get a new axle and try again. fails again ill be getting better wheel.
 
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update. tighted the saddles and it last about 20 miles longer then previously. i removed the rear axle and staitned it the best of my ability and iv gotten about 80 miles out of it without any issues. if she comes loost ill be buying that new rear axle.
 
I've had problems with bending rear axles, Then realized my one of my rear drop outs was not quite parallel with the other, been good since I straightened it.
But having the correct spanners makes it a lot easier to get it right.
I've throw away a few standard rear axles from cheap bikes and replaced with CR MO BMX axles, for about $10. a good upgrade.
 
Here's a professional bike mechanic's take on cheap cone and ball-bearing wheel hubs.

Before you put that wheel in service, get the proper tools to do a wheel bearing overhaul, ( adjustable wrenches, cone wrenches, freewheel or freehub cog remover..) and disassemble the hub, remove the caged ball bearings, clean all the bearing surfaces sparkily clean of the OEM grease in mineral spirits, then pop the bearings out of their retainers and buy enough additional 1/4" ball bearings to load both sides of the hub with loose ball bearings. ( most likely about 9 per side..)

If running a rag joint drive sprocket, I'd replace the quick-release axle with a BMX or MTB equivalent nutted axle, preferably of Cro-Moly like Theon recommends. I would check your rear axle drop-outs for alignment just to be safe.

Dry the hub of any traces of solvent, then pack both the cups of the hub with high quality axle or outboard drive grease, and install the ball-bearings loose and then install the axle/cones and carefully adjust the cones/locknuts to a slightly light preload so that there is a trace of friction while turning, but not so tight it feels stiff or rough.

Having some spots with a tiny amount of free play won't hurt, these aren't Campy quality hubs, for that matter they 're not even Atom or Mallaird quality, but they will last with proper adjustment and frequent servicing.

They weren't really designed to handle more than one human power in normal use.

Which is true of most bicycles in motorized bike use.

Caveat Emptor!
 
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Getting rid of the cages and adding maximum balls is a great way to help durability.
Old School trick!
 
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