First
and foremost, this procedure should only be performed by an authorized
bicycle mechanic. It is important to remember that over time you may
need to adjust your looseball Niner wheel. To do so, You’ll need to
loosen the hub's cone and lock nuts and then re-tighten as much as
needed, its that simple. With the 9’er looseball hub, the cone nut for
each side has it’s own special job. The nut on the non-drive side
controls the tightness for ONLY the bearings packed into the hub, the
hub bearings. The driver-side cone nut ONLY tightens the bearings for
the driver. Knowing this, you must tighten each cone nut by itself,
NEVER together. Pretty easy, right? The lock nuts, the outer, 23mm
sized nuts have a very important job. It is simply their duty to be
tightened against the cone nuts so that the hub doesn't come loose
every time you ride. The cone and lock nuts have a special relationship
and work best when functioning properly together. Take that wheel off
your bike, remove any pegs, axle nuts, or spacers from the axle, and
let's do this!
Since we now know what duty each cone nut takes
care of, we can now adjust bearing tightness. Before you can tighten
the hub down, you're going to need to get all cone and lock nuts
loosened up first.
As a rule of thumb, it's nice to first
start from the driver side of the hub. Because the lock nut’s job is to
clamp against the cone nut, you will first need to separate the two
nuts from one another. With a 19mm thin cone wrench attached to the
cone nut and 23mm wrench attached to the lock nut, push the two
wrenches away from one another. This will unclamp the two nuts from
eachother. Loosen the lock nut by spinning it down the axle a few
times, followed by the cone nut. Be extra cautious to not unthread the
cone nut too much because you don't want any bearings coming loose,
rolling away, and disappearing from your life forever. Every bearing
counts. Only loosen the cone nut enough to release any tension from the
driver, no more. Flip the hub over and use the same technique as
before, just on the non-drive side cone nuts. Unlock the two nuts from
one another, loosen cone nut only enough to remove any tension, etc.
etc. Now you're all loosened up and ready for adjustment.
Once
it's time to tighten the hub's bearings back up, we're going to work
from the non-drive side first. As you may remember, the cone and lock
nuts on this side of the hub control actual hub bearing tightness, and
the driver side's cone and lock nuts control bearing tightness in
within the driver, so they always should be tightened one side at a
time, and never ever at once. Dont forget this, it's important.
Ok,
now grab a 19mm thin cone wrench and place it on the cone nut. You may
have noticed that your wheel’s axle (which is heat-treated 4130
cro-moly I might add) is slotted at the end to accept an allen key.
Grab a 6mm allen wrench and stick it in either end of the axle. It may
be easiest to put it in the same end that you’re currently working on,
but that’s up to you. With one hand, hold your allen key in place.
Then, begin to tighten your non-drive side cone nut with the 19mm cone
wrench. Since you’re holding the axle in place, it won’t spin as you
tighten the nut. In adjusting the bearings, we're looking for the happy
balance between proper tension and a smooth-rolling wheel. It may take
a few tries to find this balance. Tighten the cone nut until it is snug
against the bearings. If when you spin the wheel the bearings feel
rough and difficult to spin, you've got it too tight. If the axle can
be wobbled up, down, or side to side, it is too loose. Since the
locknut will keep your cone nuts tight anyway, you don't need to
tension them a whole lot. If you feel satisfied with the tension and
smoothness of the hub bearings, you may now tighten the lock nut
against the cone nut. To do so, keep the cone nut in place with the
same 19mm thin cone wrench as used previous, then tension the lock nut
against the cone nut with a 23mm wrench. Since we've already spent the
time to adjust the cone nut for proper tension, be sure to hold the
cone nut exactly where you left it when adjusting as you tighten the
lock nut. Clamp the lock nut nice and snug against the cone nut and
your hub bearings are adjusted! Flip the wheel over, lets get the
driver side bearings taken care of. Follow the exact same method of
adjustment as you did for the other side of the hub. Remember this time
you'll only be managing the tension for the driver's bearings so don't
be afraid to give the driver a few spins to check for roughness and/or
looseness. If everything rolls smooth, get the lock nut tightened
against the cone nut, same as before, and you're ready for action.
Bearings
love grease. Grease is good. Now and again, it can't hurt to re-grease
all bearings and areas where bearings sit and rotate. To learn more
about greasing and packing bearings in your hub, check out the
assembly/disassembly guide HERE. Don't forget that with a little
maintenance and love, your looseball hub can roll smooth as glass and
also stay tight enough for all your hot stunts.
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