Today I Whacked Some Balls!
This post contains information about removing and installing the ball bearings off the Fulcrum Racing 7 front wheel hub. Use this information at your own risk.
After the winter pause, I took the road bike out for a spin. A few hundred meters in, there was a considerable amount of resistance building up in the front wheel and then the hub gave a high-pitched shriek LOL. That gave a fright to an old lady passing-by. I know I might be too. After all the Lycra shorts were too damn sexy. Flustered i was, in the midst of this confusion.
It appeared that i need to change the ball-bearings of the Fulcrum Racing 7. There are dozens of cycling forums with people asking about how to remove/dismantle the hub of the wheel. I could not find any instructions in the English forums since most of them end up sending the wheel to the shop. IMO having a qualified person to do the job is the best way to deal with this problem. But I want to learn how to service my machine, hence this post. I found a few German forums with very useful instructions. A poster even regarded this as child’s play and will take around 15min. That’s quite impressive.
Wheel without quick release.
The exploded view of the front hub in Technical Document in Fulcrum’s website does not indicate a circlip ring. There is actually one on each end to fasten the bearing cover. There is a dedicated circlip plier for removal but I used a needle-nose plier. Wear protective eyewear! The ring can fly.
Circlip ring removed.
Bearing cover removed.
Hitting the axle.
Hit the axle (preferably with a rubber mallet, I had a pestle wrapped in layers of cloth) to eventually knock off the axle and the bearing on the other side.
Bearing without axle.
Use axle to knock the other bearing out.
This is only a rough walk-through of what I did. Remember, it is always important TO NOT damage the wheel Okay.
Here’s a link to the said forum at Tour Magazin (in German): http://forum.tour-magazin.de/showthread.php?t=151126
Will update this post once my ball bearings arrive by mail. My ball bearings?
***UPDATE***
- Still waiting for the standard sealed cartridge bearing 6001-2RS. They should arrive soon.
- Bought 10 flat washer. They are the Kotflügelscheiben kind (fender washers?) 13,0 x 30 mm (1,2mm thick) and fit through the axle nicely covering the bearings.
- The plan is to take the quick release skewer with the washers and use it as a clamp, to press the bearings into the hub. The washers will act as spacers and (well, i guess) exert equal amount of force on the bearings so that they uniformly enter the hub. These were 0,92EUR from the hardware store. Online prices are ridiculously high unless you’re looking to buy more than a thousand pieces which does bring the unit price down. There is also a tool for this job called the bearing press if I’m not mistaken which costs around 50EUR. Wait. What? That is almost the price of a new wheel lol so no I’ll just have to improvise.
***INSTALLING THE BEARINGS***
The ball bearings finally came in the mail. I bought these SKF 6001-2RS for 4,50EUR a pop incl. shipping.
Ze ball-bearing.
To put the wheel back together, insert the axle through the hub along with the bearings on both sides. Insert the skewer and ‘clamp’ with the washers, hub cap and then screw the nut in.
Ball-bearing, washers, cap, skewer nut
As the skewer is tighten the bearing will be pulled in. Tighten the nut and continue closing the lever. Since the washers are a tiny to wide to fit into the hub (the bearings should be slightly lodged in the hub), i changed the order so that the hub cap is next to the bearing, then washers, then nut. My attempt managed to pull in one bearing on one side. So i took out the skewer and placed the cam on the other side and pulled the other bearing in.
So both bearings are now in. Job finish? Not yet. Check the axle for play. If there is play, the bearings still need to be pulled in. Put in the bearing covers and secure with the circlips.
Checking for play
So that’s about it. Hope this would be some sort of help to you.
Happy riding!
Afifi
Six-Thousand Miles 