My shimano m525 hub had a little play in it so I took it apart, cleaned it, regreased and used new bearings (9 x 3/16 inch from memory) and put it back together. It now seems even more ‘grindy’. I used fork grease as it was all I had, and i did notice the cones weren’t great but I’m having difficulty getting new ones. Any ideas? Have I torqued the cones up too much?

Cheers

TS

Sounds like its a bit tight. Try loosening off the cones a bit. Adjusting cup and cone is an art!

Front hub? then there’s usually 11 per side.
It’s probably a combo of too tight and guff cones. It’s an arse trying to get the exact same cones, as Madison are woefully unhelpful with little bits like this.. Even if you’ve got a part number, then it’s hard to search for it.
You should be able to get a complete hub for peanuts and swap all the guts over. Tightness of the cones should be very very slightly loose when out of the bike.

Front hub, yes. Thanks for the info, I’ll try Madison tomorrow for new cones and try loosening them off myself too.

adjusting cones is easy (with a bit of practise)…

at each end of the hub you’ll have a cone, and a locknut.

(with the axle out) do one side up REALLY tight.

with the other side nipped up (cone against locknut), you should be able to tighten the nipped-pair just by turning the locknut.

(and loosen the pair by undoing the cone)

when it feels right, tighten the nipped-pair*.

that’ll do-yer.

(*a little trial and error will get you from ‘good enough’, to ‘ooh that’s lovely’ – i challenge you to tell the difference from the saddle though… )

if you look on the shimano techdocs site, you’ll be able to get a part no. for the cones. You might be able to google for that to find it. Not sure if the madison consumer site lists the spare parts.