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I have a Kona Wo Fatbike with a (I’m told) KT TX9R rear hub with a number B0018-2110 etched onto it, 197mm OLD. I have had three failures now of the right hand bearing, the one adjacent to the freehub. The first I put down to water ingress from the beach, the second I put down to poor quality and now I’ve had a third failure. The bearing has been in around six weeks and I noticed the wheel wasn’t smooth and the freehub had started sounding like a Hope so I stripped it. Grease in all the right places still but that bearing very rough. The only fault that I can find is that the steel, hollow axle is extremely tight in all the bearings and takes a lot of persuasion to remove and re-fit. This axle also measures over 15.2mm where the bearing i.d. is 15.
Could the axle be flexing and this bearing is taking the strain, is the oversize axle causing problems or have I been unlucky? Does anyone have experience of these hubs?
Luckily I’ve a spare DT Swiss wheel and would buy another if I could find one, but I’d really like to keep this one going to give me tyre choice. Help and ideas appreciated!
Is the axle straight? I had a hope hub with similar symptoms that the bike shop had bent the axle changing the drive side bearings. If its hard to get the axle installed it might be damaging the bearing on assembly?
Thank you for that idea, tomorrow I’ll remove the axle from the freehub and check it on my steel bench. I’ve done loads of different hubs when I was working and I can’t remember one as tight as this! The bike hasn’t done that much work, although I like rattling over rocky trails, I’m old and not very heavy so I’m wondering whether it was bent when I first bought the bike.
Right then, hub completely stripped. The hollow steel axle took some knocking out with none damaging tools but it’s straight. It is very, very tight in all the bearings though so my theory is that it’s putting some internal pressure on the bearings and the right hand inner is probably under most stress when the axle flexes and therefore fails prematurely.
As spares are difficult to locate so I can try a different axle then I will probably retire this wheel after only a year of use! It’s a shame as the Sun Ringlè rim is an excellent design for tubeless.
Is it worth seeing if a local engineering company could reduce the axle diameter so it fits?
Thanks for that advice, I remembered that I gave my father in laws lathe away to a colleague some years ago. I might call in a favour!