Hey everyone, I have recently (6 weeks ago) brought myself an Orange alpine 160 which has a 12mm rear maxle.

I seem to be having a few problems with it though, I cant seem to get the tightness right. It is either too tight and so the freewheel/cassette does not have free movement and so pushes the cranks round or its to loose and there is a small amount of play in the back wheel. there does not seem to be any middle ground, its either or.

has anyone else had this problem? will the play have any bad effects on the rear hub? what can I do to solve it?

Any advice would be awesome

I had the problem with mine being loose. There's a hex adjuster for the lever, which I had a fiddle with, and seems to have sorted it. Might be worth looking at.

Sounds like the hub to me.

nicolaisam's probably right thinking about it. It shouldn't have any effect on the freewheel regardless of how tight it is.

Check you haven't got either a broken hub axle, or a missing spacer from between the freehub/hub body.

Maxle or maxle lite? Sounds to me like your Hope axle has snapped or bent… remove the wheel and see if it falls into two bits or if your cassette wobbles when spun.
Maxle lite's kill Hope hubs.