Hubs – Too tight too loose?

That day Johnny told me his rear wheel is shaky. Yes looks like a loose hub. I noticed mine was slightly loosen after the Kota Tinggi trip and tightened it immediately but forgot to warn you guys to check. Mine wasn't as loose as Johnny’s though.

So how tight how loose? No play good to go, but over tightened hubs mean more resistance and faster bearing and cup wear. I tightened mine just to the point where they have no play. Some like to leave a hairline gap. Always check again when the wheel is tightened to the frame for any rubbing and ensure no play. If in doubt, remove wheel to check and readjust. Repeat this until you get that sweet touch, you’ll need to have a little patience here.

Loose hub: Axle turns smoothly but moving the axle back and forth result in a knocking feeling. 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.

Tight hub: When you turn the axle, you’ll feel rubbing friction, almost like notches, that means the hub is way too tight!

 

The process of actually loosening or tightening the hub is fairly straight forward. You need thin wrenches to access the thin nuts on the wheel.  Each side has two nuts. The inner cone nut puts pressure directly on the bearing while the outer is a lock-nut. To loosen or tighten the hub you will need to loosen the outer lock-nut on one side of the hub first. Pick a side, put one wrench on the inner, one on the outer and loosen. Now you can loosen or tighten the inner cone nut to change the pressure on the bearings. When you’re finished adjusting the pressure, tighten the outer lock nut back down while using a wrench to make sure the inner cone nut does not turned together as well. If you do not do this you can end up tightening the hub.

That’s it!