Sealed bearing options for front wheel

[Slippy One]

Hopefully this is in the right section, I'm having a bike noob moment. lol

I'm wanting to upgrade my front wheel to sealed bearings type, it has the open bearings prone to odd noises and don't feel very smooth when spinning. I think it's not only an odd size but an odd axle (I think it's called 'slotted' type?). Most hubs I see have a hole (thru axle?) or older quick release ones. The replacement size I'm looking for is 135mm wide hub on a 20" rim with 36 spoke holes. Do I just buy a thru-axle hub (with sealed bearings) and reuse the slotted axle from the old hub or am I missing something? Not sure what to buy, and I'm happy to build a wheel from scratch if it means I have more options. The motor on the back is a Bafang with beautiful smooth sealed bearings, why would they not do the same for the front?

Front fork is a Himalo Air fork 20x4" with slotted axle slots only, not sure if this needs an adapter or if using the old axle is ok..

Anyway, any help for my commuter bike is greatly appreciated

 

[ChapinB]

I dont know the answer to the og question - cant say Iv seen a sealed front in the wild. If you want to rebuild the loose bearings, its not a hard job to do. Ideally replace the bearings but not always needed.
Sometimes just adjusting how tight the races are on the bearings and adding some grease goes a long ways to making to feel smoother.
A cheap set of cone wrenches helps a ton.

 

[James340]

Servicing the bearings is much easier than building a wheel. Clean& grease. Adjusting bearings preload is critical to good performance

 

[Slippy One]

Yeah I did pull it all apart, clean re grease and tighten down, which makes it ok but does feel rough compared to sealed bearings. Oh well, maybe it’s too tight or a cheaper design, but when I get it tightened down just right, there’s definitely some perceptible roughness when spinning using my hands..

I seriously considering getting something CNC machined just to spite this gap in the market. Road bikes have them, why not cheap fat bikes who want to fix cheapness?!

 

[James340]

Yeah I did pull it all apart, clean re grease and tighten down, which makes it ok but does feel rough compared to sealed bearings. Oh well, maybe it’s too tight or a cheaper design, but when I get it tightened down just right, there’s definitely some perceptible roughness when spinning using my hands..

I seriously considering getting something CNC machined just to spite this gap in the market. Road bikes have them, why not cheap fat bikes who want to fix cheapness?!

Definitely to tight. Tighten just until side play is gone. Probably better to replace the ball bearings

 

[Diggs]

compared to sealed bearings.

The biggest drawback will be when the sealed/shielded bearing starts to wear. Other than a replacement there's not much you can do. Conventional front bearings are easy to clean, easy to grease, and easy to adjust.

 

[Slippy One]

Definitely to tight. Tighten just until side play is gone. Probably better to replace the ball bearings

I think you might be right, I’ll go in again and eliminate that grind..

I have a few bikes with sealed bearings, but I need spoked hub not alloy. How hard would it be to design one for CNC lathes I wonder.. there’s plenty of cargo bikes around with 20x4 wheels.. I think sealed are brilliant, zero adjustment needed, easy and cheap to replace, and aren’t magnets for dirt like.

And if the bearings are worn out, how would I know? Stainless steel is very strong, but could they wear out sub 400 miles?

 

[James340]

I think you might be right, I’ll go in again and eliminate that grind..

I have a few bikes with sealed bearings, but I need spoked hub not alloy. How hard would it be to design one for CNC lathes I wonder.. there’s plenty of cargo bikes around with 20x4 wheels.. I think sealed are brilliant, zero adjustment needed, easy and cheap to replace, and aren’t magnets for dirt like.

And if the bearings are worn out, how would I know? Stainless steel is very strong, but could they wear out sub 400 miles?

Over tightening could damage them but probably not in 400 miles. Give them a visual inspection. Getting proper preload is trial and error due to the dreaded"tolerance stack". The bearing cone will move when the lock nut is tightened.That is way you have to check it.I always start to loose and keep making it tighter. Trial &error + patients.

 

[amberwolf]

And if the bearings are worn out, how would I know? Stainless steel is very strong, but could they wear out sub 400 miles?

If misadjusted, contaminated, etc., bearings can fail in less than that, depending on the load they carry vs their design.

Ther'es also plenty of grades and types of stainless, and unfortunately many levels of manufacturing capbility and QC.

The bearing balls are probably made by a different place than the cups in the hub; the cones are probably yet a different manufacturer, and any one could have quality issues.

Sometimes the wrong size (or amount) of balls get used, so they can't properly support the load.

I've seen plenty of cheap bearings that have a plating on either the cup or the cone, and a few balls that did, and once that plating fails in any way, the whole part is now compromised and will get rapidly worse...and the flaked plating itself will then grind up the other parts in the bearing, damaging them.

If you see any kind of imperfection, pitting, etc., when examining the bearings, cups, or cones, in direct sunlight, if possible with a magnifier, I'd recommend replacing any of hte parts with such imperfections.

Some good images of damaged parts like these

worn bearing cup and cone type - Google Search

 

[Slippy One]

@amberwolf thanks so much for this detailed explanation, I'm going to replace the bearings as I can see some scoring, so without success in finding hubs with sealed bearings, I feel I'm in good hands nonetheless.

 

[Diggs]

The biggest drawback will be when the sealed/shielded bearing starts to wear.

This was my first impression but as I've noodled on it I've changed my thoughts. All my motorcycles have sealed wheel bearings. I've never had to change them and they endure much higher loads and more miles than my ebikes. A bike would need a slightly larger hub but I like the idea.

@Slippy One - The front wheel on my bike used to make noise and growl. For a few dollars replaced the cones (old ones shown below) and ball bearings, greased everything and for the last 10,000 miles its been silent and hasn't needed adjusting.

 

[Slippy One]

Thanks for this info, I do think the insides of mine looked a tad rough, didn't realise they can also be replaced, I'll def grab new ones too. Can I use my Park Tools HPG-I to pack it all in? Or is there something better?

Cheers all, I'll get this wheel smooth as butter before long. These parts are cheap as chips compared to the cost of a new hub!

 

[Diggs]

Can I use my Park Tools HPG-I to pack it all in?

From what I know, this would be great!