So I’m a pretty young guy, but I’ve been working on bikes for a little while. The other day I was doing a major tune-up on a customer,s bike and noticed the hubs, something which I usually only check in passing, were so tight you could feel the bearings. This was a relatively new bike too, so I checked a few others and noticed the same thing. It was then I realized the importance of checking your hubs, something I know that most mechanics usually don’t look at.

Hubs are just assumed to be fine…No play good to go, but over tightened hubs mean more resistance and faster bearing and cup wear. I always learned to tighten hubs just to the point where they have no play. However Mr. Hobbs from Park Tools says to leave a tiny amount of play in the hub, but when the wheel is tightened in the frame the extra pressure should remove this play. (Always check it) He also says if you do not leave any play in hubs they are too tight. I have tried this with varied results. Depending on the bike, sometimes no matter how little play I leave in the hub, I still end up with play when the wheel is tightened in the dropouts, so use your own discretion.

Anyway here is what to look for. When you turn the axle it should be smooth, but moving the axle back and forth should not result in a knocking feeling or at least on a very slight movement that should be corrected when the wheel is tightened in the dropouts. If you turn the axle and feel bumps, almost like notches, that means the hub is way too tight! Sometimes the easiest way to check for play is with the wheel still on the bike. Hold the bike off the ground and try to move the wheel side to side feeling for any knocking. Rotate the wheel half a rotation and try it again. If there is nothing that means the hub is fine or too tight. You will have to remove the wheel in order to determine how tight it is.

The process of actually loosening or tightening the hub is fairly straight forward. You need thin wrenches called cone wrenches to access the thin nuts on the wheel. Most bike shops should sell these or you can just let you local shop do the work for you.  Each side has two nuts. The inner nut puts pressure directly on the bearing while the outer nut keeps the inner nut locked in place. To loosen or tighten the hub you will need to loosen the outer nut on one side of the hub first. Pick a side, put one cone wrench on the inner, one on the outer and loosen. Now you can loosen or tighten the inner nut to change the pressure on the bearings. When you’re finished adjusting the pressure, tighten the outer nut back down while using a wrench to make sure the inner not is not tightened as well. If you do not do this you can end up tightening the hub by tightening the outer nut.

And there you have it, the secret of hubs.

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