I own a DT Swiss wheelset (240 hubs front and back) bought new with around 800 miles on them. This is the second set of these hubs that I have owned. The front hub has started to get a bit notchy which is really surprising as I though the Japanese-made bearings in these could go for 1000’s of miles before needing attention. Indeed, my last pair never needed anything doing to them in the thousands of miles I put on that bike before I sold it.

The only variable I can think of is that on my current bike, I’m running a Fox 34 fork with the Kabolt through axle. The torque spec on the axle is 17nm, which I consider to be really high for a through axle. I set it at 15-16nm just to give a bit of leeway but I have seen some of the newer Kabolts with a torque rating of only 9nm.

Has anyone else run into the issue of premature bearing wear with this setup? Should I dial down the torque on the Kabolt?

I’d think its unrelated as all the torque is being applied to both sides of the inner race of the bearing and not side loading the bearing.
I couldn’t tell you what torque I use on my kabolts, one-up axles etc but it’s 6mm Allen key tight and isn’t coming undone on its own if that’s any quantifiable measure?
Power washing aside, I reckon the most underappreciated killer of front wheel bearings over here is wheels spinning endlessly on vertical hitch Mount bike racks on the drive between riding locations.

Nsmb/one-up agree 17nm is excessive

I’d think its unrelated as all the torque is being applied to both sides of the inner race of the bearing and not side loading the bearing

Very good point, I didn’t think of that.

@BearBack – great article, thanks for the link. I’m going to wind down the torque quite a bit and see how it goes.