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Help with a wheel please !
#1
Hello all. My name is Andrew, and I reside in sunny Bognor Regis, UK. I have been an avid BMX rider my entire life, but my body has taken a battering and I now have arthritis creeping in and if I am really lucky* I will also inherit my mother's osteoporosis.

*yeah was being sarcastic. No other form of comedy funnier etc lol.

Any way, when my body started to fall to bits and I had a bad BMX wreck last (2018) I decided to explore other aspects of cycling. I have always hated geared bikes but I would say rather that they hate me. I am not easy on bikes and have broken several derailleurs over the years. I also could not get my head around tuning gears, hence why said things broke. I don't have much patience.

Any way, this is the bike I currently ride.

[Image: n138N3i.jpg]

It's a single speed fixed gear bike. I have removed said fixed gear sprocket and replaced with a freewheel, then used the sprocket mount to fit a disc brake.

[Image: YGpqdnM.jpg]

However I am not opposed to rim brakes at all, it was just on these wheels the powder coat was wearing thin and I didn't want them to go manky. Since building the bike (I put a lot of miles on during the summer, but live on the beach so winter riding would be miserable) I have slowly upgraded the parts. The original wheels arrived damaged (I got the bike NOS from 2009 and it was stupid cheap) so I bought these alloy mags you see. They are pretty heavy, but at the time I did not trust myself on delicate thin wheels. Since then I have learned to be slightly less stupid, but have replaced the following.

Cranks. The bike had steel cranks on (a sin on a bike such as this). I have restored and fitted a set of FSA SLK carbon cranks (solid forged carbon) and fitted a Kooka ceramic ISIS BB.
Seat post. The alloy one has gone in favour of carbon.
Seat. Carbon rail/body Flight.
Bars. Gone are the ones that make you stare at the ground and replaced with Box One carbon BMX race bars. I love the sitting position as my back is bad and I don't like leaning over.

I've also fitted some Superstar sealed pedals and a couple of other bits.

OK. So this year more than any other I need to lighten the bike further. Due to said arthritis my right shoulder is very bad and I am having trouble raising my arm above my head. I also moved into a new apartment/flat and it has 104 steps and 5 flights of stairs. So getting a heavy bike back into the flat (I am not allowed to store it in the building and I am not putting it outside) is becoming harder. As such I have bought some SH carbon forks and will refurb them and paint the silver areas black.

[Image: cZcI1PF.jpg]

They are Bontrager and take a wider tyre. Now onto the wheels. The part I knew was going to cost me a bloody fortune. Every year since I have had the bike (I built it in 2017) I have looked, and every year I come back to the same. I like the Encore mags, but they are £600ish each. I really don't want a mag on the front but the back is nice, given I am quite a heavy guy.

So I just bought this.

[Image: GAzwGOE.jpg]

It is a vintage HED 3 mag. The branding has been changed to HOTTAS, who it seems are a UK based company who build road bikes. The wheel appears to be from the 90s. It was cheap, but it is missing the axle, and given my 0 experience with these sorts of wheels I know nothing about freehubs and so on.

Now in the close up pic the hub appears to be unsealed. Am I correct?

[Image: tlCXTsu.jpg]

Which would mean I can fit a regular easy to obtain axle, bearings and skewer? However what I am failing to understand is why there appears to be two bearing races. An outer one and one underneath it. I would also like to rebuild/replace the freehub but need to know which type it is so I can study to get a better understanding of how to remove it and or replace/rebuild.

I did find a set of these wheels for sale but they are £1000 and appear to be sealed bearing.

[Image: ggI5qP6.jpg]

I would like a spoked wheel on the front to really get the weight down, and I don't have £1000 Big Grin

Thank you for reading and thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer Smile

Andrew.
  Reply
#2
Simple answer. Maybe.

If you're lucky, you can get a generic rear axle replacement from eBay and it will fit, granted you have the same cones on both sides.

This worked for me once. However, understand this is a rare chance.

The cones for hubs are usually custom (by width and depth) to the races and hub shell, based on the engineer's spec who designed them. Why? Simply because it's easier for them. Sometimes, there's a legitimate purpose behind it, like with Shimano's gradient quality on their series hubs. Some of the cones have grooves in them where a rubber dust cap goes and seals up the hub shell making it difficult for the grease to get spun out.
  Reply
#3
(05-11-2022, 10:32 PM)ReapThaWhirlwind Wrote:  Simple answer. Maybe.

If you're lucky, you can get a generic rear axle replacement from eBay and it will fit, granted you have the same cones on both sides.

This worked for me once. However, understand this is a rare chance.

The cones for hubs are usually custom (by width and depth) to the races and hub shell, based on the engineer's spec who designed them. Why? Simply because it's easier for them. Sometimes, there's a legitimate purpose behind it, like with Shimano's gradient quality on their series hubs. Some of the cones have grooves in them where a rubber dust cap goes and seals up the hub shell making it difficult for the grease to get spun out.

Hi. Thanks for replying.

I have done some digging and it appears HED used Shimano hardware on this wheel. I do need to know one more thing though please someone....

[Image: 2Xxmqxr.jpg]

The arrow. That is where the wheel bearings go yes? and that is part of the freehub?

I am now assuming (I could be wrong here, please correct me if I am !) that if a hub uses loose ball bearings in one side it would do so in the other? Like, you don't get a hub with a half sealed axle in it? so basically the non drive side must be loose ball also?

That means (again correct me if I am wrong) then this hub set going for £20 shipped will include a NOS freehub, axle, bearings and bearing caps? Can someone also confirm if the freehub is the same?

[Image: 17Ig9EF.jpg]

I do not want to use hollow axles with skewers. Bike theft is off the charts in the UK, so bolted down is the safe bet Big Grin
  Reply
#4
Hi guys, quick update.

I contacted Chad at HED and he has been a gentleman, confirming that it was all Shimano hardware on the wheel.

I will post some pictures once I have it in my possession and have rebuilt/restored it. I am going to redo the clear in flat, I don't like the shiny stuff Smile

Thanks for all of your help !
  Reply
#5
Simply answer once again is maybe.

The Shimano designs can be different between road and mtb. Shimano likes to palette swap their component designs a lot. You would have that going for you—but it's still a gamble.

Reminder that it typically depends on the width and depth, which can be dramatically different.

At $20...it's worth the gamble all day long. But don't get your hopes up.
  Reply
#6
Hey, I just wanted to update that I noticed that hub doesn't have a sealed freehub body.

Those hubs you showed don't have dust caps, because their seals are integrated into the hub.

Even if those cones fit, you'll need to go to your local bike shop in hopes they have a dust cap that fits the cone and the hub to seal it.
  Reply
#7
Hiya. From what I can garner and from the very in depth email I got from HED it should all fit. There are bearing caps on the Altera hub, and they should be identical to what HED used, as it was basically a Shimano hub set into the carbon wheel. If you look at the front hub you can see it has bearing caps, the rear should have the same.

Problem with Shimano is that they sell everything separately. So the axle, individual cone and lock nuts and the bearing caps etc. So by the time you're done you've racked up a large bill. As such even if the axle and cone/lock nuts are all I get it was still cheaper. The pair of NOS hubs cost me £20 delivered. The axle alone costs that.

Bear in mind the HED cost me £60. So unless it's badly damaged on the non drive side I will have made out very well. They fetch £1000 a pair in the UK and around $600 per wheel in the US.
  Reply
#8
Yes, the hubs are capped, but they are integrated into the hub.

Yours looks open, and will need the cone to be fitted with a metal dust cap to seal it.

These do not come with the hubs you showed, but will need to be procured from a local bike shop.
  Reply
#9
(05-17-2022, 08:08 PM)ReapThaWhirlwind Wrote:  Yes, the hubs are capped, but they are integrated into the hub.

Yours looks open, and will need the cone to be fitted with a metal dust cap to seal it.

These do not come with the hubs you showed, but will need to be procured from a local bike shop.

Hiya. I got over to the stuff today.

Immediately I was a bit puzzled, because there was a cone nut and bearing cover on the non drive side. What I mean is, I was wondering how the hell that had stayed put with no axle in the wheel. Surely it should have fallen out.

I stripped down the NOS hub I bought, and screwed it into that cone nut. I then tapped gently, and lo and behold that side is sealed. The bearing, cap and cone nut are all like new.

The bearing cap was in the freehub. It is a thin plastic affair, as I just removed it. Thankfully the Altus does indeed come with one and it is metal. I have tapped that out, and when the water proof grease arrives I will replace with the metal one (its a tap in job) and use all of the hardware from the axle. I mocked it all up, and it all fits lovely.

Actually I just looked at the auction pictures again, and -

[Image: M33nJYI.jpg]

What threw me is he was selling both wheels separately, but wants £200 for the front and I paid £60 for the rear *scratches head*. Maybe he thought it was beyond repair? I don't know. It also came with the tyre, yet in one pic there was no tyre on it. So I just figured that was a pic of the front wheel.

The freehub is like new. TBH? other than being absolutely damn filthy and with the alu oxidised (I will fix all of that) physically the whole wheel is new. Pin straight too, and holy crap is it light ! sheesh.

I've bought a new front wheel. Again NOS, was £30 delivered.

[Image: cDoZK29.jpg]

As well as a whole load of lovely shiny new parts. I won't go into all of that until the bike is done Smile
  Reply
#10
This is the whole assembly. I need to adjust the spacing when I build it.

[Image: K1CddHc.jpg?1]

It's that sealed cone on the left side that is vital. That said I have two friends who are engineers with enormous lathes at home, so I could have had one made.
  Reply
#11
All done.

[Image: EMvYfcO.jpg?1]

[Image: imdvyQ0.jpg?1]
  Reply


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