Replacement cones?

[davidj]

I finally accepted that I had to investigate the rumble in my drivetrain. The quick and easy chain clean & lube brought about improvements but no resolution to the grumble.

The bottom bracket felt smooth with the chain removed so I had to accept it was down to a rear hub service.

The drive side cone is pretty badly worn and I don't know what to buy to replace it. The hub is not branded, it is 135mm QR. The bearings are 9 on each side but I have no way of measuring them.

Are these standard/interchangeable items or specific to the hub? A cursory search on Google shows the parts can be quite expensive in relation to a complete hub!

I could rebuild the wheel on a new hub but would like to investigate an easy & cheap fix for my daily ride first.

 

[Madmax1993]

Take it with you to a shop and see if they have axle/cone/bearing sets and whether the profile of the tapered part matches yours, and likewise the thickness of the cone, so it doesn't throw out your wheel alignment.

 

[davidj]

Bike shops... I remember them! Halfords or a pimp bike showroom is all that's available to me.

Working on the notion it is a Formula hub I bought the cheapest new Formula hub I could find, just £12 delivered.

My plan was to swap the freehub, drive side cone & bearings onto my existing hub shell and retain the none drive side cone & bearings as they were still in good order.

Annoyingly you need an 11 mm Hex key to remove the freehub and I only have 10&12mm.

I ended up just swapping the drive side cone & bearings for now. The wheel spins lovely again. I will swap over the freehub when I can get a loan of an 11mm hex (I'm not spending £10 on a tool I will only ever use once!).

I didn't opt to rebuild the wheel on the new hub as it is not disc brake compatible.

 

[Tootyred]

Go to a local market...cheapo allen key should be a quid. It dont need to be super great quality as your not going to use it all the time and 11mm is a gret'ole chunka metal anyway.

Tbh, if its running ok, leave it till the other side dies....might as well get the use out of the freehub if its ok.

 

[davidj]

I'm not going out of my way to find the elusive 11mm hex, but the market is a good idea. We did have a tool stall on the local market in the summer, but he is currently missing, I am sure I got his details though.

The existing freehub is fine 99% of the time, but when I am flat out (running 2x11) I sometimes feel like I am "outriding the freehub", so I would like to swap it out.

I would also like a set of hope hoops! But this is supposed to be my stealth bike for leaving outside the swimming pool & pub for hours on end in all weathers.

The wheel is working great again, so as you say I may just forget about it and get on with using the bike.

 

[davidj]

The freehub continued to engage slowly when the bike was ridden at speed so I bit the bullet and bought an 11mm Allen key and fitted the new freehub.

All in it was a cost effective way of fixing up the back wheel even if the Allen key was nearly half the price of the complete hub!

Tools needed for both of these Formula hubs are two 15 mm cone spanners and the 11mm Allen key to remove the freehub. There are nine bearings on each side.