A friend has a pair of HED3 wheels and the rear wheel bearing seems to have a “catch” in it. The wheels are not very old, purchased March-ish. The catch, or rough spot in the bearing was diagnosed by both my me and my Father.
My Father is a professional mechanical engineer and an expert witness in matters revolving around mecahical engineering and materials while I am simply the engineering manager/maintenance supervisor at a medium sized manufacturing facility. Between the two of us we can spot when a bearing is failing.
Because I like to know these kinds of things, I called HED and spoke with a very friendly fellow there and he suggested that the bearings be replaced since they did not roll smoothly. I notified my friend of my conversation with HED and he went to the shop with that information in hand.
My friend then takes the wheel to a reputable shop in Chicago where he bought it. He is told that “all HED wheels feel like that.” I do not know the rest of the conversation, but my friend calls me after leaving the shop “Feeling like an idiot.” He’s no idiot, just the victim of poor service.
I know that I am not wrong and that our diagnosis is correct, confirmed by my conversation with HED.
But are we wrong? Does this $685.00 wheel supposed to feel like it has bad bearings?
I won’t out the shop, but they know who they are and they should feel shame.
Chest,
The wheels shouldnt catch. A god bearing wont do that. I wouldnt go back to that bike shop.
The people at HED are exceptional. Either buy a bearing from them or get the specs for the ABEC5 bearing they use. THey are very easy to change out as I just did two units. SInce the bearing surface is aluminum - sitck it in the freezer to cool it down. Leave the bearing on the counter. After 5 minutes the aluminum shrinks and the bearing slides right on. Then take that assembly and put it in the freezer. After 5-10 minutes the steel will shrink and it will slide into the warmer aluminum hub. Before doing that though make sure you have repacked the free ball bearings on the other side.
I can see that the non-drive side is a standard bearing with rubber seals on one side at least, but the drive side is a loose bearing design?
CR,
I had a hed jet that was much older then yours and the front hub cracked. Took it to the LBS they were like wheel is not worth fixing. Ended up buying a new wheel. Couple months later for grins and giggles I called hed. They send mail us the wheel and let us look at it. Cannot exactly remember but $50 later they replaced the broken hub with a new sonic hub. My point in this, if your freind can spare the time apart from the wheel send it to hed. There customer service is top notch. I would bet that if the wheel is new they would not even charge you to replace the bearing.
Peace,
RF
Chest,
The non-drive side is an ABEC5 double sided sealed bearing. The drive side has 9 1/4" ball bearings I believe.
I would repack it them with some lithium grease and dont get carried away with the pre-load when putting it back together.