Our mate, Kelly Tawharu, sent us a photo and asked, "I have these wheels. Hardly used. And the cover bit has come off a few of the bearings... I don't want to throw bearings out as not old. Do you have a solution to this? Seems to happen to me a lot."
Kirsten responded:
Hmmm, do you tighten your wheels with a drill? Serious question - we do so many wheel changes in the shop that we do use a wee power tool, but it can be easy to quickly over tighten and cause damage to the shield.
Or, do you leave your wheel nuts so that there's a bit of movement on the axle - some people prefer this, a little "play", but what can happen is your bearing shield keeps taking a hit.
Once the shields are off those little all-in-one type of bearings, there's not much you can do to re-fit them. You could be industrious about keeping them clean - a little bit of forced air (like the cans you buy to clean your computer keyboard) and a new drop of lube. People did used to just ride with open ball bearings like this. You could try using a product like ZeroNutz, which these might be too late for, but you could try them anyway, to give them a little longer life.
The solution:
Kelly responded that yep, she like a bit of 'play' in her wheels and she might have enthusiastically over-tightened her nuts while changing her wheels. She opted to try some ZeroNutz to see if she can't keep these bad boys spinning a little longer, but also popped new bearings in her shopping cart because fortune favours the prepared!
Got a question? Hit us up - if we use your query in an upcoming newsletter or blog post, we'll send a little thank you gift your way!