Hello all,

The hubs on the wheels that came with the Prophet (Formula 20mm front and Cannondale QR rear) are starting to get tired. Front is free running but rumbling, and both ends have developed play.

Anyone got any ideas on servicing/replacing bearings? I suspect the rear hub will be fairly straightforward, but there is no obvious way into the front hub – retaining ring on the non-disc side seems to be a press fit, and the bearings would have to be drifted out from the disc side. Google has produced no results. Is it a case of giving them the distance test and replacing with new hubs or wheelset?

Front hubs are usually pretty basci affairs and it’s a case of levering/pulling off the endcaps and bashing one side out with the axle itself, and then drifting the other side.

This chapter from the Barnett’s manual covers most eventualities, although it does assume you’ve got an interesting array of tools to hand!
Chapter 13 – Cartridge Bearing Hubs

If it’s anything like the cannondale ‘thru12’ front hub that I have it is just a case of clipping some mole grips onto the 20mm reducers and pulling/knocking on the grips to remove the press fit retaining rings. Or you can clamp the 20mm reducers in a vice and pull the wheel away from the vice.

Then the bearings just drift out likea hope bulb/proII front. The cannondale thru 12 I have takes the same bearings as a Bulb front.

Sorry – yes, missed it was a 20mm front. What Andy said – pull/knock/lever the caps/reducers of and then drift the bearings out.