Cup ‘n’ cone vs sealed bearing

[Splatter Paint]

Pros and cons of each?

Personally I think cup and cone edges it, but when the cups give up, unless you have a donor hub to butcher they’re scrap. My modern road hubs with silly tiny ‘sealed’ bearings (12mm through axle ) have lasted less than a year.

 

[mdvineng]

Sealed bearings every time. Mavic ones had one of the seals, the metal side one, not touch the inner race to reduce drag and they were adjustable. Replaceable without scrapping a hub is cheap maintenance too.
Cups and cones rely on the screw threads in part for alignment, not the best method.
Keeping water out is important and not using a hosepipe and especially pressure washers to clean your bike help prolong life. Some hubs do choose bearings of dubious quality and size though.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Pros and cons of each?

Personally I think cup and cone edges it, but when the cups give up, unless you have a donor hub to butcher they’re scrap. My modern road hubs with silly tiny ‘sealed’ bearings (12mm through axle ) have lasted less than a year.

For hubs there are few constraints, they can make the bearing any size they want once they have the or go roller, a mix and have preload like cup/cone.
It's just the choice of the maker. There is no reason to use tiny bearing unless they want to keep the weight down.

Cup/cone are great but you need more skill as a mechanic/fixeruperer over the cheap and cheerful setup of slap a new bearing in (if they are not adjustable).

 

[Ren Rawbor]

Cup n cone for me any day. Probably because I grew up on them & got a feel for adjusting them early on, but I'd much rather have the option to strip/clean/repack them if they get crap in (or overheated, in the case of the DH pioneers) rather than just replace a cartridge because a seal went bad.

OK they're more maintenance intensive & if you screw a cup it's a faff but for the most part they're better IMO.

(one concession I will make towards cart' is BB units, having a decent quality cartridge is so much easier)

 

[Bluejohn]

Cup n cone all the way for me - I really don't like the throw away mentality of sealed units. It's really not so difficult to maintain and adjust them as some would have you believe.

 

[greencat]

Don't mind either in wheel hubs. Now bottom brackets on the other hand...

Sealed all the way.

 

[Bluejohn]

Horses for courses - I always upgrade cartridge BB's to cup and cone

Don't mind either in wheel hubs. Now bottom brackets on the other hand...

Sealed all the way.

 

[Russell]

There is a reason why Phil Wood, Hope, Chris King and White Industries hubs all use cartridge bearings and have done for decades; Long life with zero maintenance.

What’s not to like?

 

[Mod-Master]

Yep definitely sealed. It’s not that hard to service sealed bearings. Whilst for me whenever I do cup and cone it all goes to shite.

Don’t even mention servicing pedals

 

[Splatter Paint]

There is a reason why Phil Wood, Hope, Chris King and White Industries hubs all use cartridge bearings and have done for decades; Long life with zero maintenance.

What’s not to like?

When manufacturers do it on a budget and they fail in under six months!