Back in november I serviced my rear cup and cone for the first time or more accuratley regreased it rather than replacing the ball bearings as they looked fine. At the weekend the hub felt awful and on inspection the drive side had no grease in it at all, and the other side the grease had turned browm. Since the last service i’ve probebly ridden only ten times but mostly in poor conditions and used the odd jet wash.

Is it normal for the grease to be washed out so quickly or should i pack even more grease in or change to a better quality grease rather than cheap Halfords `Bike Hut’ stuff?

Don’t jet wash for starters!

And forget ‘bike’ grease too. I get the odd grease cartridge from work (We use tons of the stuff on bushings on diggers and excavators) which is really nice and thick. Once a year has usually been fine for me. Better hubs have better sealing too. If they are the OEM Shimano M475 hubs the seals are rubbish. Deore level (M252) an above are a lot better.
Even the cheap ones can be kept sweet for a long time though 🙂

When I’ve ‘acquired’ a shimano hub (i.e. on a new bike) it normally gets to the point where the bearings are getting bad after a few weeks and I suddenly remember why I don’t use them and put something decent on instead

Ah, ok – must admit the grease does feel a bit thin. Its one of these `custom’ series specialized liked to use -M525SL.

PP – Ive always wondered why Shimano persist in using rubbish seals on the lower grade hubs. The cost differential between a basic rubber flange and a full on labyrinth seal from the XTR’s cant be very much at all, pennies, but would have a dramatic effect on service lengths.

Seems to be building in obsoleteness into lower value units too readily IMO.

6-10 rides is about all I get from mine over winter (Swinley mud is possibly even worse than Peaks grit!) It’s not a big job once you’ve got the knack of getting the bearings right first time. And never jet wash, you can flick those seals off with a fingernail, just imagine what 15bar of water is doing!

I’d go with just about anyone else now though, Hope, or any other cartridge bearing hub only need a new set of bearings every 8-18months of regular use, and a set of bearings cost £8-£20 or so, which is about the same as a shimano freehub, which lasts about as long, but in the meantime you’ve re-built the bearigns ~20 times? I dont buy the Shimano being good value/servicable argument at all.

happens with all products and companies stoner

next time you strip the hub drill the shell and put a grease nipple on the n you can use a grease gun to re-grease regularly.

Has anyone ever actualy tried that? Surely drilling a ~5mm hole to take a grease nipple is going to weaken the hub in the worst possible place (the flanges).

Maybe a 2mm hole, taped and a grub screw sealing it like on V8 pedals might be a better idea, but that still wont work for the drive side as the bearing is in the freehub not under the flange like the NDS bearing.

thisisnotaspoon – most people drill in the middle of the hub, so there’s not a huge load in there anyway. Putting grease in there packs the entire hub out…

never done it myself, i always just go for the strip regularly approach to cup and cones. I really don’t like them though!

I did it on a n old set of wheels, don’t have it on my current wheels but plan to. I built the wheels in a rush so didn’t put a nipple on ate the start but will do a retro fit.

As cp states you place the nipple in the middle of the hub. I still strip and clean but with a nipple it means you can squirt a little grease in whenever you want in a few seconds.

PP – Ive always wondered why Shimano persist in using rubbish seals on the lower grade hubs. The cost differential between a basic rubber flange and a full on labyrinth seal from the XTR’s cant be very much at all, pennies, but would have a dramatic effect on service lengths.

Seems to be building in obsoleteness into lower value units too readily IMO.
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I totally agree mate. You’ve hit the nail on the head and explained why in one shot though!

Mrs PP had a Rock Lobster that came with full Deore. The freehub went so I bought a full XT hub for cheapness and transplanted the bits over including the axle, cones and seals. When we sold it 3-4 years later I stripped the hubs and the cones were literally perfect. (I posted pics at the time) I’d probably serviced them twice inbetween.
I really like Shimano C&C hubs and seem to have the knack for keeping them sweet, and it does piss me off when they fit crap seals, but that’s life.
All that’s needed is the big conical seal that fits over the whole lot. I’m about to sell my Carerra Subway commuter. It came with very cheap no-name hubs which I regreased from new, but they have the conical seals. It’s done 1500 miles and not been touched. OK, not offroad but it does do a short muddy section and gets used in all weathers and never cleaned! I popped the seals off at the weekend and the bloody grease underneath is still the same red as when I put it in, so I checked and adjusted the cones and left it as it is: Smooth as a baby’s bottom! 🙂

al – I know companies differentiate products by quality for a reason, but in this case it just seems bloody minded. To actually design in a failure system when to not do so has no extra cost of production just seems spiteful.

As you say PP, the cone seals with rebated slots that engage with the hub work very well.

I get you bro! just seen it many times…

Surely that just makes an already heavy hub seriously overweight packing all the hollow section with grease?

TINAS – Yeah maybe, but so what? 10gt of grease or longer life? I know which I’d choose. 🙂

I really should do the grease gun thing…..