Cartridge bearing hubs with adjustable preload

Like many of us, I started out with cup and cone hubs.  The idea of adjusting the preload on angular contact bearings makes perfect sense.

Then we move forward to cartridge bearings.  We even covered the design of them at Uni and it made sense.  With two bearings in a device (bottom bracket/front hub) then you leave one of the four bearing races to float and the alignment takes care of itself.

Now, I’ve head cartridge bearing die or fail in different ways, but I’ve never replaced one due to excessive play.  Normally the rust, fill up with mud, feel too lumpy or just disintegrate.

So, cartridge bearing hubs with preload adjusters – I get the theory and it makes sense if they’re using angular contact bearing – but has anyone found adjusters useful on hubs with normal deep groove bearings?

Lets bump this for the evening crowd.  It stands no chance on page 2.

I like cartridge bearings because I can ignore them until they are knackered then replace them. Why would I be interested in adjustment? Suspect the majority of cartridge bearing lovers are the same

I replaced the bearings on my Surly hubs with std bearings. They were tricky to set up but worked fine.

Onzadog

I think my Specialized hubs are adjustable cartridge bearings. Seems like a misnomer to me too.

Love my old Hope XC hubs with their tap in / whack out bearing replacement.

If it has to be adjustable then cup and cones please.

Cartridge bearing hubs are great! idea for most riders who don’t like/care/lazy with their bike maintenance.

“Now, I’ve head cartridge bearing die or fail in different ways, but I’ve never replaced one due to excessive play.”

Really? so you never had side play in the BB or Wheels when moving the crank arms/rim side to side? That shows play/wear in the bearings, which is normally due mud/water etc. it is  hard to feel “play” with bearing in you hand.

Look at Mavic hubs most of them have preload adjust, think it’s more to do taking side play out of the axle.

When I’ve stripped stuff down, then I might have found a bearing with excessive play but usually, the opposing bearing is okay and keeps the system functioning.

I’ve had an old UN72 bottom bracket do that, but while they were sealed bearings, they weren’t really cartridge bearings.

I’ve never owned or played with a Chris King hub with a preload adjuster (although they might be angular contact) or Easton who I think also do it. Like others, I’ve never had a problem with the Hope type press in/press out bearings. That’s why I wondered if anyone else had found it a useful feature.

Friend of mine has a thru axle rear wheel with cartridge bearing hubs. Pushing the rim side to side: yes – there is (little) play… Thru axle ist tight.

Cone hubs: they worked fine – and very long – on road race bikes. But started to hate these things with mtb riding (example Shimano XT and similar).

Dirt issues, jumping and and an… – these cone things fail on me and constant hassle. Worst is Formula?

Cartridge bearings: they fail as well. But easy to replace and no hassle in the time “between failures”.

Adjustable cartridge bearings: no idea if such is around. But correct – there are designs around which have (too much?) play.

I had some Mavic wheels with cartridge bearings that needed adjusting. Thought it strange as I had Crossmax a Ksyrium wheels that never needed touching, but they were CrossTrail I think. One went a touch wobbly and a simple adjustment and locking of the nut sorted it out. Pretty sure they’re still on the same bearings 6-7 years later, but they’re on my mate’s bike now.

Cartridge bearings are ok until the bearing comes apart when you’re trying to replace it and the outer race staysin the hub shell….

Just had to replace the rear bearings on the other half’s road wheel which has cartridge bearings and there was a lot of movement at the rim. With the wheel out of the frame you could tell that just the non drive side had play. They still ran smooth etc and being a road bike, were not subjected to a lot of mud and or water.

Only ever happened twice to me. Once on a horst link on a specialised frame. Left the outer race in a female mount. The other was a bulb hub which left the inner race on the male part. Both fixed with a dremel and some swearing.

I only started thinking about this whole question because I’m looking at some onyx racing hubs.

The current version is quite heavy, offers lots of colours, custom laser etching and adjustable bearing preload. They’re also working on a lighter, cheaper version which will come in silver or black, no etching, no preload adjustment.

Can’t see why I’d want to pay more for a heavier hub is all. Wondered if I was missing a trick.

Specialized hubs are adjustable cartridge bearings

If they’re like mine they’re just a (slightly odd) design where the locknut holds everything in the right place instead of having a shoulder on the axle to locate the bearings…

Can’t see why I’d want to pay more for a heavier hub is all. Wondered if I was missing a trick.

Lazer etching?

Can’t see why you’d care about weight when it comes to Onyx hubs, the whole selling point is the sprag clutch. They’re also available as Nobl hubs, possibly a bit lighter if you really care about that.

l.e. Yes, they are lighter:

We reduced the bearing size and overall diameter of the front hubs to bring the hub weight down from 207g to 173g, and retained the bearing preload adjustment so you can keep your hubs spinning drag free even once clamped into your fork.

Because following a thread on MTBR, it looks like they’ll be looping quite a bit of weight off the hub, so why not. Looks like they’ll use 1.5 sets of sprags rather than 2 full width ones.

I think the theoretical advantage of pre-loadable cartridge bearings is their ability to deal better with loads? E.g. the point of shimano BB’s is the bearings are theoretically much better able to deal with axial loads? And by making them ACB’s you need less race, so in the same space you can fit bigger bearings.

Whereas SRAM just went with bigger cartridge bearings on a smaller axle (only the NDS takes the axial loads).

But as the OP pointed out, it’s not overloading or wear that kills bearings on bikes in the UK, it’s mud and water, which is why stuff like HOPE lasts so much longer despite having smaller bearings than SRAM and a less optimal design than Shimano.

Mavic Crossmax do

adjustment at 2.21 on.