I am short on time and brain power today. Likely causes of rear wheel rocking from side to side while riding (pedalling or freewheel)?
Held by seat stay or chainstay the movement at the rim is 5mm+ either side of centre if you look at top of seat stays.
The wheel is a 142*12 through axle'd Spesh Roval (as fitted to lower end bikes not the fancy S Works stuff). Cartridge bearings.
Rear axle is done up tight.
The suspension bolts all seem tight.
There are no baggy or loose spokes.
The movement feels mechanical as in clicks/clunks from side to side under hand movement.
My money is on hub bearings but there's no apparent rocking movement at the axle with the hub removed. The only other "might not be" factor is it's started or become noticeable fairly suddenly. The hub needs a dt swiss tool so it's an lbs job to do them so not cheap to do without getting a positive result.
Anything else I'm missing in my thinking?
I had similar recent and it was the hub bearings on the drive side for me. The axle on that side had vertical play, but not horizontal play.
I had all sorts of clinking grinding noises probably from a combination of its affect on the disc, chain and cassette. Had to get my team car in to collect me as I was fully loaded and 20miles from home. I ended up with a new wheel.
It's not bolt-on/replaceable dropouts is it?
One bike of mine with those, the bolts holding them kept coming loose and it felt like the wheel bearings were going or the rear axle was loose.
Similar, but it was the "cones" on the thruaxle tube on the nds, and the inner one had worked loose, cos the outer one wasn't torqued up properly. Had to get me the right size cone spanner to be able to tighten inner and outer against themselves, and all sorted.
Have to make sure that you don't overtihgten the inner otherwise it cramps the bearings
Cone spanner was a tenner, so less than trip to lbs
Not sure my nomenclature is all correct in description above
t’s not bolt-on/replaceable dropouts is it?
Good call but old school conventional drop outs.
I think my money is on the hub bearings but I wondered if any potential axle issues I hadn't thought of might be at the root of it. Swing arm should be good as I did the bearings a few weeks back.
Wonder how much £70 of LBS pre Covid bearing change cost is in post Covid inflationary world money? One kidney or two? 😬
Before you blow the 70£ on bearings, are the cones tight?
I know they're probably not called cones when they are cartridge bearings, but the nuts holding everything in place to prevent lateral movement at the axle
Yeh susepic I checked and packed my cup and cones with grease but just couldn't get rid of the play on the drive side and couldn't manage to get everything totally out. It was a cheap old wheel, as is the new one 😂
Similar, but it was the “cones” on the thruaxle tube on the nds, and the inner one had worked loose, cos the outer one wasn’t torqued up properly.
@susepic think posts crossed. Same set up on the roval and I have the spanners from when they went through a phase of working loose. Will give preload adjustment a look before committing £££
Loved my old QR Hope hubs...bearings lasted years and no annoying lock rings etc to add risks of coming undone.
My Hunt wheels are cartridge bearings but when I got a bit of play I found you could tighten the end caps by screwing them up and that instantly removed the play and the bearing still spun perfectly. Might be something like that depending on the hub setup.
If not it’s probably the main hub bearings. You can pickup a tool to remove the ratchet ring - either genuine or a knock off version on eBay I believe. Meant to be an utter b*stard to get out though as it works it’s way tighter and tighter over time. Would take the freehub off and soak the ring in penetrating fluid like plus gas and leave it overnight before trying to remove.
@garage-dweller lockring and preload a much clearer way to describe things 😉
Hope it is those for you. Mine is a low end roval w no-name hub - I was convinced I needed a new wheel or hub or new bearings, but it was just getting that preload sorted and lockring locked
@longdog have to say I've never tried adjusting cup and cone axles (do skate trucks qualify), too scared of losing bits and balls. But probably explains the wobble on a few old bikes bitd
Big hex 8 or 10mm fits in one side of the hub, adjustable spanner on the opposite side to nip it up and remove the play. Or at least that was the case on my 2014/2016 roval traverse 142mm.