5 rear hubs in 12 months...

Hardly a big guy...


Id be curious to see the bearing sizes of the tandem hub vs regular as well as the wall thickness of the hub itself.

Pictures of broken hubs?

 

I qualify as big. 255 without my gear on.

 

Take off the granny ring and never worry about torque again. However if weight is the issue ...

 

Hadley's or atomlab, I hear good things about the new Crank bro's but at $1k and no 10mm axle options it would be a No-No Serge.

I think you would save a few bucks going Hadley, but my next set will be the Aircorp just because I think the six pawl driver will be better for wheelie drops without fragging.

http://ww5.aitsafe.com/cf/add.cfm?u...5&return=http://www.atomlab.com/webstore.html

 

Thanks guys,

If anything, it gave me knowledge for my next wheel build. I was counting on Hope replacing the full hub and work with The Path on an upgrade, but Hope will only replace the casing of the hub. Full price for a hub is not in my current budget. I will get the hub rebuilt but upgrade the axel.

again thanks for the advices.

Big Guy

 

How old is the hub that broke and had it broken before? Is there any kind of rider weight limit on it?

I bet if you sent Hope a letter similar to the one Jason sent to Specialized they would warranty the whole damn thing and rebuild the wheel too.

 

This hub is 2 years old, and never broke before. all the hub problems I had were on the 29er until then.

 

Pictures?

Can you narrow the failure down to either torque, vertical load, or sideload? When it broke doesnt always tell the whole story.

did the shell break above a bearing? at the radius of where the bearing bottoms out? Snap ring groove? on the side that is still intact can you measure any out of round condition if you press out the bearing? Can you tell where the crack started to propagate from? Circumferential crack? Porosity in material?

A lot of aluminum if not bought from domestic suppliers is crap. We deal with it at my work and if it doesnt come from Kaiser we have a lot of issues with it.

 

Far too geeky.

So Alcoa makes junk?, anyway I would put my money on our friend riding a standard QR axle that simply flexed like the limp noodle, road bike part it is. I went through 3 hubs in a year before finally switching to a 10mm QR and even though the 3 pawls are about the same strength as the previous hubs, it takes so much more torque to get the cassette carrier out of line that I have not had a failure since.

So many manufacturers have rolled out all these exotic redesigns of the same old (obsolete) technology:?:. Or worse tried to create new standards (15mm anyone) that have no advantage over simply licensing technology that works. Though being a suit I appreciate capitalism, when it comes to parts I like to buy from guys who actually ride hard enough to break things regularly who in turn design superior products with the customer in mind rather than the balance sheet.

While on this tangent, I'll give a shout out to Transition. Who currently has a wheel that will fit not only your budget but get you back on the trail by this Weekend.

Good luck and happy trails.

 

I was going to say kaiser and alcoa but thats just symantics since I said "domestic". The alcoa plate we use is domestic and I dont have experience with their european or asian mill products. My point was no chinese recycled aluminun regardless of its designation have we had luck with nor runs from other continents. I wish I still had the parts side by side for comparison to take a photo of.

 

The crack on the shell started on the cassette side and stopped on the flange on the brake side. If they still have it at the shop when I pick the bike up, I will take a picture.

I sent an email to Hope and they will replave the full hub and they assured me that they reinforced their shell design and the pawl material. It is cheaper that getting a new hub, I'll give them a fair chance.

 

I saw the hub at the shop the other day, and it was pretty ammazing! :bang:

 

So it traveled flange to flange parallel to the axle?

 

I'm glad the e-mail worked!

 

That is correct, along the axis.

 

sounds like a load issue...not a torque issue. find the shell with the thickest cross section above the bearing.

 

Now that I actually read through the posts I see how redundant some of my arguments seem:-k. Regardless there is simply a finite amount of stress that aluminum can handle, so though a thicker shell may take a larger load Chances are good hope will fail again. In lieu of a thicker shell I would again say Hadley due to the 20mm pipe tying the dropouts together, flex issue solved. Too bad those guys don't do the web...

 

Incredible.

 

I think it has to do with load over time, on the hub. 70 rpm in granny versus 30 rpms in middle ring or SS breaks hubs, and titanium spindles on CB pedals too. Mashing is thrashing, when you are big, strong, yanking up and down on the handle bars while mashing on climbs, and heavy.

BTW... I rode up San Juan Trail on Tuesday... and now I've got some funky noises coming from my rear wheel, might be loose spokes or something else, I doubt it's the Hadley hub. :?: I think it's the high torque and the damn switchbacks, and what you have to input for power to negotiate them without dabbing, that is brutal on wheels.

 

I think some people confuse pedal force with torque. Torque on the hub depends on pedal force, crank length, and gear ratio. Being an average middle-weight I can exert more torque in granny gear than a 300 lb SS'er on his 32:20.