I am thinking it's about time to replace the bearings in my Powertap Hub. I have the Pro+, and I bought it last May. It's making some interesting sounds, I know the bearing suck to begin with, and I was caught in a really dirty super heavy rain on dirty roads for about 3 hours last weekend...can't be good for bearings.

I saw this video online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS_BL1b2wns

The video is helpful, but it only shows one bearing being replaced. Isn't there at least 2? Does anyone know how the drive side bearing is replaced?

What bearings would you all suggest I order to replace the existing ones? I was looking at these (http://www.bikeman.com/BB1692.html) but honestly have no idea if that is a good bearing or a good price.

I have Campagnolo freehub, but it is less than one year old (switch from Shimano to Campy late last year) so I am thinking the bearings in it are fine.

If anyone could clarify those few points I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Search, there are plenty of Powertap bearing issues just on this forum. Just so you know, it's not the bearings that fail, it's the machining of the hub that loads the bearings too much. I had a new SL+ hub that would eat bearings every 300 miles. After 4 sets, they finally gave me a new hub [That new one is back at Cyclops for power reading issues now]. Service is great, product is not so.

Thanks Butcher. Is there an easy test or something I can do that will help me shed some light on the condition of the existing bearings? I don't know that these ones are bad, I just know they aren't the best bearings to begin with so I figured it wouldn't hurt to replace them and get a higher quality bearing in the process.

I was looking online, and there are a ton of "ceramic bearings" with a huge price range:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=690 ... ic+bearing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Can anyone help clarify which are good, which are bad, etc...? I want to get good bearings, but don't want to spend more than I need to.

Thanks in advance.

I honestly cannot remember the brand of bearing that they are using, but it is not a cheap no name brand. It's really hard to blame a good bearing for failing. It is either used in the wrong way or not set up correctly. Roller bearings should not have [or very low] side load on them. Matter of fact, I have some Easton wheels [which I love] and never had an issue with bearings. They have an adjuster and I make certain there is a very slight amount of play so I know there is no side load on the balls/races.

The Powertap hubs are machined so there is no type of adjustment. If the hub is machined incorrectly, there is too much load on the sides of the bearings which caused mine to fail [as little as 100 miles to totaly seized by 300 miles]. They did not agree with my opinion and since I am just a consumer with no engineering degree, it took awhile to convince them it was not me but the hub. A new hub did fix my bearing issue but a year later, I was generating +1400 watts [and 300 watts while coasting]. They have them now and getting fixed.

The service dept. at Cycleops is fine. They have treated me with respect, listen to my frustrations, and have calmed me down after a frustrating weekend with a seized rear wheel. I would not buy another SL+ hub, but because of their service, may look into their newer hub design [it can't be worst could it?].

At least the G3 hub has a different design. The axle might still be captured by the main hub bearings (couldn't tell), but the NDS cap no longer presses against the bearing inner race (instead it just presses on the axle end), and the freehub has a little lateral play, so those aren't captured either. Should be more more forgiving.

dhendriksen... don't spend a lot on bearings... it's a waste of money.

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formerly rruff...

I prefer the enduro abec5 steel bearings over any of their other offerings, steel or ceramic. Just a solid, well made, maintainable bearing for just a little more than their standard ones.

Thanks for the responses guys. Like I said, I am getting a definite "scraping" sound, and it doesn't matter if I'm pedaling or not. In my eyes it HAS to be in either the front or rear hub. It seems that it is worse and ALWAYS present when I lean to one side.

So, I have a gift card to Amazon and figured why not use it for this. I'm looking at this bearing: http://www.amazon.com/S6902-2RS-Ceramic ... 02+Bearing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am going to need two of them, right? And if I understand it, those two are for the drive train side? What do I need on the NON drive train side? If it makes a difference, I have Campagnolo.

Inspired by this thread, I just checked my SL+ bearings and they were a bit gritty feeling. They are about a year old.
So I tried an old trick for lazy guys: I just pulled out the outer seal and sprayed the hell out of the two hub bearing with WD-40. I blasted the crap out of them to get rid of any dirt. Spinning and blasting with WD-40 until they felt a little cleaner.
Then, allowed them to dry a bit, repacked them solidly with Phil Wood Grease and zipped to whole thing back up. I didn't touch the cassette body bearings.
Big improvement!

But they are still far less than "perfectly smooth" so I guess I'll get some bearings on order and plan a project for early autumn.