January 3, 201610 yr My Xtracycle cargo bike has seen a lot of use since I bought it about 8 years ago. It's not required much maintenance but in recent years my oldest son has grown to adult size and uses the bike every day, in all weathers, for his paper run. His riding style is not as gentle as mine and I've had one broken wheel axle (hollow type) and a couple of bent ones (solid type). The wheel bearings seem to wear quickly and get slack and gritty so I thought I'd try a pair of wheels fitted with sealed cartridge bearings. They feel super smooth and being sealed should keep out the road crud. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this type of wheel bearing regarding their service life, reliability etc. as they don't seem as popular as cup and cone type.
January 3, 201610 yr I greatly prefer the sealed bearings and have never had trouble with them as wheel bearings. I'd like to see the end of cup and cone as being primitive and more in keeping with cotter pins and the other such long departed just-about-good-enough crudities. .
January 15, 201610 yr The reason cup and cone type bearings are more common is because they are cheaper and are stocked on cheaper bikes, which are more common. Sealed bearings are better for longevity and require less servicing than the cup and cone type. Saying that though, a cup and cone type bearing will last just as long if not longer than a sealed one, it just requires a thorough cleaning and regreasing the minute it starts feeling gritty. Unsealed bearings also roll faster.
January 15, 201610 yr the reason for using cup and cone BB is not so much because they are cheap but because of the longer BB shell length on some frames, especially when the battery is behind the seat post. You can't find BBs with sealed bearings for shells longer than 83mm. The old design lets water in, causing loss of lubricant. The more up to date cup and cone type now has much better water barrier, so there is now not much difference in longevity. http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/images/products/large/22176.jpg
January 15, 201610 yr Author Thanks for the reply's. The bearings are rolling smoothly. The pair of wheels I bought only cost £40 and were only Single wall rims. ( I always buy Double Wall ones but couldn't find any fitted with Sealed Bearings). A few days ago my son fell off the bike on black ice and came back with a one inch buckle on the front wheel (he was OK thankfully, just bruised) I was able to to get it spinning straight again using my truing stand but I'm sure double walled wheels would have fared better. Pity I couldn't have bought stronger wheels, but it seems the more you pay the lighter the wheel. With a Cargo bike all I want is durability but strong heavier wheels, like tandem wheels, are not so easy to source.
January 18, 201610 yr If you're looking for something super strong rim wise, you can't go wrong at all with something from the Halo range, the SAS for instance is a super strong rim http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Halo-SAS-26-inch-Pro-Rear-Wheel_69310.htm?sku=211935&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=AdwordsProductAds&utm_campaign=Adwords&gclid=CKmZtpLRs8oCFUeVGwodAFwFVQ# Not overly cheap for just a rear wheel mind. I purchased a used set of SAS a few years ago, they're still going strong, although the hubs are just cheap shimano deores, and they get abused whenever its wet on my dirt jump bike.
January 22, 201610 yr Author Thanks Zack, With Down hill / Jump bikes being popular there is a good choice of strong 26" wheels. Unfortunately my bike has 700 wheels and almost all seem to be built with mainly light weight in mind, rather than strength. My Bike..... http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc374/kenbogle/055.jpg
January 22, 201610 yr Thanks Zack, With Down hill / Jump bikes being popular there is a good choice of strong 26" wheels. Unfortunately my bike has 700 wheels and almost all seem to be built with mainly light weight in mind, rather than strength. My Bike..... *snip* Lucky for you, 700 and 29" are the same. So, effectively you could buy something like a Mavic 821 29er rim, lace it up to some decent hubs (I've always been a massive fan of the hope Pro 2s for reliability) and you'll have a wheelset that will last forever.
January 22, 201610 yr Author Disc brake only I'm afraid. My bike has old fashioned rim brakes Which are fine for my bikes usage. Something like 40 spoke tandem wheels, with strong bearings, are what I'm after.
January 22, 201610 yr Author Thanks for the link kiwi. That's the kind of rim I'll be looking for next time, and a reasonable price too.
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