So, quick anecdote on the importance of maintenance/quality components...
Yesterday, took my road bike for a spin. Front hub locked up, went over the bars. I'm OK, but I tore into the hub today. One side had all kinds of debris, was missing one of the bearing's balls (likely in the steel shavings everywhere, heh), and another bearing looked like this:
SMC-M 50mm, reversed
So, after careful examination, the dust seal failed, getting debris in the grease, ruining one whole side of the front bearing. Cups are toast, and not replaceable, cones were in much worse shape. Anyways, for anyone out there, make sure you keep up maintenance with your cup and cone type bearings! Out here, 500 miles is pushing it for a repack on grease, and every other time replace the cones.
After this, going back to cartridge bearing hubs, with a pair of nice Mavics on their way to me now. probably 3,500 miles of off road on my MTB with Mavic bearings, and no issues on those puppies. My father's hubs with Phil Wood bearings, as well as his Phil Wood bottom bracket, got him about 15k miles before they started getting gritty. Next time I do bearing work I'm switching to those!
Anyways, for reference, here's the rig:
Frame I've had just about forever, countless miles... newish carbon fork, Chris King headset, Salsa cockpit and a nice newer Specialized Avatar.
Here's up close with my drivetrain:
Tricolor Ultegra 8 Speed STI shifters and front Derailleur, XT rear derailleur to get the bigger cassette, 12-30 cassette, 160mm BMX crankarms (for ultimate spinning pleasure!) with a psuedo compact double (36-50). Avid Shorty 6 in back, Oryx up front-- which is lighter, stronger, easier to adjust, and much cheaper than the Avids were. TRP Mini-V's are on my list.
Originally posted by mattb123 
Post #2044 by scratchpaddy
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