Progress And Maintenance

This bearing was very reluctant to rotate!

With Odin's Revenge less than a week away, I suppose it was high time I get the rear hub squared away! The deed was just going to be a simple maintenance of the Chris King hub, or so I was thinking. The rear wheel worked perfectly during the Dirty Kanza 200, but I heard it getting louder as the day wore on, and that could only mean one thing- The grease was getting washed away, and that hub was going to be dirty when it was all said and done. That was what I thought anyway.

Well, I cracked it open Sunday, and it was a little more than I had thought. Yes, it was dirty, dried out mostly, and needed to be serviced for sure, but there was one more thing. The drive side bearing was not rotatable by hand. Yeah........that's not good.

Now here is where you get your money's worth when you buy a Chris King hub. This is my opinion, but I think I am pretty spot on when I say that a Chris King hub is very expensive, but it is very maintainable and can be made to last a very long time. Case in point- the sealed bearing that was an issue with my hub.

Many hubs have sealed bearings, that is true, but not many hubs have bearings made by the brand that is emblazoned on that hub, and most are not meant to be serviceable. I've serviced the ordinary type of sealed bearings, but the Chris King types are eminently easier to work on. Snap off the metal seal, carefully displace the rubber seal, flush out the bearing, re grease, and replace the seals. That actually was the easiest part of the whole deal. The bearing now spins well and the hub is back to good as new with the further cleaning and re-oiling. Quieter for sure with the fresh oil. Oh.....and tell me how many hubs that you can actually clean out and rebuild the free hub mechanism on. Only the best hubs can you do that on. With no pawl springs to break off, (like a certain U.K. made hub I have that failed), you can be sure you can hammer on the hub afterward with full confidence. Plus....the parts are actually available. Again- my opinion.....

On down- One to go.....

On another front, I got a hold of a highly regarded penetrant and let it fly on the Karate Monkey's bottom bracket. I let it sit for a day, then hit it with the wrench and hammer, and what do you know?

The old sealed bottom brackets Shimano made were kind of odd. Many had the removable cup not on the non-drive side, but on the drive side. That's how this one is, and I manged to get it loose, so now I can get at the cartridge with more of that penetrant, which should help tremendously. This is the first progress I have made on this bottom bracket removal in years. It felt good to get something good going on this bike for once.

I'm confident that now this bottom bracket will come out eventually and that the old Karate Monkey will be getting ridden again in the future. Stay tuned.......