wynkendeword wrote:The rear hub axle bearings felt somewhat rough to the touch two days after the race. Pulled the caps and cassette body off and it felt smooth again, and pinpointed the roughness to the cassette body bearings. Not impressed with the seals, though which seal is weak is harder to determine: the cassette-body-to-hub-flange seal, or the outboard cassette body seal near the cassette lock ring? Gonna be difficult getting at those bearings to either repack or replace.
Update on my rear hub / freehub body issue. After my single ride / race on it, I pulled the freehub body off (also sometimes called the cassette body, in case you're googling) and, using a socket and hammer, tapped the two no-name cartridge bearings out. And they felt fine and relatively smooth on their own.
Also inside the freehub body are two spacers of equal width but in two diametres: one to match the outside bearing race diametre, and one to match the inside race diametre. Funny thing is that while the larger diametre spacer seats itself inside the freehub body, the inside one just seems to sit on the inner races by manual alignment. I pressed the bearings and spacers back in (with a home-made bolt-washer-wingnut press) in the proper order: cartridge bearing, outer with nested inner spacer, second cartridge bearing, rubberized c-clip. Put the freehub body back on, tighten the end cap and…rough again. Unreasonably rough.
Tap them out again, try again, this time not fully pressing the unit in with the press…re-assemble the whole hub and they are smooth this time.
My theory is that the tolerances are a bit low on these and, if the bearings-and-spacers are pressed ~0.1mm in too far, the axle end cap presses / rubs on the freehub body itself a bit, instead of solely pressing it's small lipped flange on the inner race of the bearing cartridge. By having the bearing protrude ~0.1mm (it's definitely less than a mm, anyways) it seats properly. I think. The question is: how did it become rough after one ride?
Will likely learn more next weekend when I race them again.
Pressing the bearings and spacers back in.