do you service your own hubs?

my rear hadley is making some popping sounds and skipping occasionally on hard pedaling. is it easy to make a mistake in there if you're careful with the disassembly and reassembly? i'm doing the rear air can on the shock now..

Yes. But you need the right tools.

Yes. But you need the right tools.

What he said.

Did my Handley hubs last year, after buying the tools (found them used on craigslist) and ordering the bearings (took 3 weeks to deliver), it would have been faster, cheaper and more efficient to have my LBS do it. Plus it was a pain in the ass to figure out how to do it all without damaging the internals (be careful, the spacer in the rear hub scores very easily), which added time and frustration.

I usually do all my King hubs once every year or so. You do need the CK hub tool to do it. Still have a couple of sets nearing ten years that are on the original bearings.

from what i can ascertain on the webs, you can forego the hadley specific tools for a 21mm wrench and a park pin spanner spa 2. a brit site showed a guy actually unscrewing the caps and how the freehub body comes out. with the hadley service kit and oil in hand, i think i'll give it a go.

I find it's something that has to be done so rarely, why not have an expert do it? Someone who does it semi-regularly, has a great work space and all the necessary tools. It's not like you're doing it every week.

I find it's something that has to be done so rarely, why not have an expert do it? Someone who does it semi-regularly, has a great work space and all the necessary tools. It's not like you're doing it every week.

Here are a few reasons that I do almost all of my own work:

To understand more about how my bike works and know when something is wrong with it, to be able to repair anything on my bike, to make sure the job is done properly, and for the satisfaction of doing it myself.

The one thing I don't do is damper service on my suspension, for exactly the reasons you state above.

Here are a few reasons that I do almost all of my own work:

To understand more about how my bike works and know when something is wrong with it, to be able to repair anything on my bike, to make sure the job is done properly, and for the satisfaction of doing it myself.

The one thing I don't do is damper service on my suspension, for exactly the reasons you state above.

right where i'm coming from. i think i've been lax on how frequently the rear hub pawl system is supposed to be cleaned and oiled. it looks dead simple from an online source but the rest of the hub internals are more complex and need much less frequent service. buddy has the chainwhip so we'll get at it tonight before the drinking begins…

My Kings need an occasional clean and re lube, usually once a year. Not a tough job.

Requires an Allen key, a clean rag, a tiny screwdriver (snap ring) and some rubbing alcohol (bearing cleaning) compressed air (remove last of alcohol) ….some ring drive lube ……and some triflow for the seals (putting back together)

Basically follow the instructions right off the King site. Totally doable at home.

The big service requiring special tools is rarely ever done in my case. In fact I had it done once on my other Kings after 5 years or so. I might be inclined to get the shop to do this because I don't have the specialmtool for bearing removal.

its worth buying specific tools when you invest in a nice set of aftermarket hubs :)

those hubs will last many rims/bikes and so will the tools

great to be able to pull 'em apart and rebuild as necessary, its not rocket science just right tools and procedures

at the moment I have DT Swiss toolkit, grease, ratchet drive spares for my 350's if ever needed

front hub bearings died after 2 years, replaced with 2x SKF bearing at £12 total, and 10 minutes in the workshop

did the surgery on my rear Hadley. called them first for advice and they emailed me a schematic of the hub n parts and service instructions. no proprietary tools required. very simple. the hub and pawls were filled with contaminated grease. having the first service done by a top mech at LBS, i'm pissed as this is a no grease job. PTFE oil only, which i provided. clearly this was ignored and liberal grease used. 2 hrs of meticulous cleaning it's now done right and purring like a Hadley. do your own hub maintenance. it's easy, it's cheap and it's rewarding to do it right.

My hubs need service about every 7 or 8 years. Standards change faster than that. So, I don't service them at all. I will buy new ones.

I've done the freehubs on my i9 and Hope hubs. They were both pretty easy to work on and didn't require any really special tools. I needed a bearing press and the Santa Cruz one worked pretty well. I used a friend's vice and that made the job a lot easier.

The only think I don't do on my bike are shocks and fork cartridges.

Hubs are easy peasey, however if the free hub uses tiny springs prepare to hate life (I'm looking at you i9).  Work on a clean floor.

A lesson I learned last year was to not gauge hub bearing happiness by the ones you have easy access to check.  All but one of the ones I'm running (front an rear) are awesome after ~250 park days, but one in the free hub had half the balls remaining... I had thought it was cassette/chain/derailleur related until I had replaced all those.