VegasJen

I was doing some basic maintenance on a couple of my bikes today. One bike, my Trek Lexa, needed a little TLC. I happen to notice a slight wobble on the rear wheel when it was free-wheeling so I broke out the spoke tightener to see if I could true it a bit. As it turned out a couple of the spoke nuts just crumbled when I tried to tighten them. I do have a small supply so off comes the tire/tube and I remove the old nuts and install new ones. I get everything back together and I put the wheel back on the bike to try truing it again. I have an even more noticeable wobble now but that's not a surprise given I just replaced two nuts. So I go about loosening here, tightening there when all of a sudden I hear POP! Get to looking around and this is what I found.



Well ****. This is a Bontrager RaceLite wheel. Anybody know if just the hub is available? I did a quick interweb search and came up with some info, but no source for just the hub. If not, then I guess I'm shopping for a new wheel. At least I have other bikes to keep me going. This bike has more or less just been a back-up bike for a while now anyway.

Troul 

That'll cut the bicycle weight down lol
I'd look an ebay for a replacement if that's the route you want to take.
Personally, I'd just replace the wheel assembly for a new one. You've earned it!

VegasJen

Replacing the whole wheel will have to wait a while. Still just an unemployed nursing student with tuition and books due here in the next month.

Cdst

Crap indeed. At least is wasn’t on a ride

urbanknight

Is this the same hub?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/36390475726...UAAOSwcXpizC7F

Personally, I would just save up for a new wheel (or wheelset). It looks like the elements have gotten to that hub, which means they have probably gotten to the other hub, nipples, and spokes too.

chaadster

Yes, and assuming a shop were to do the rebuild with a new hub, the cost probably wouldn’t be much more than to just buy the new wheelset.

RB1-luvr

try Craigslist for a local person selling wheels or wheelsets? My local listing frequently has them for fair prices. Perhaps use your student status to haggle a better price. Good luck.

BobbyG

At least you have other bikes to ride. I know the pain of having to wait to find funds for bike stuff. A few years ago a non-profit bike co-op opened in town with very low cost used parts, and low cost refurbished bikes. Like $20 for a rear wheel, plus $5 to transfer the gears.

Maybe there's a place like that near you?

dedhed

​​​​​​https://renobikeproject.org/sales/

alcjphil

Added to that: No shop would rebuild the wheel with the original spokes

chaadster

Yeah, that was certainly part of my calculation, new spokes and nipples. Around here, a rebuild could be $200 in labor and spokes, plus the cost of the hub, so at that point, I’d rather just spend the money on a new wheelset, probably upgrade in some way (looks, weight, aero) and not have to worry about the front wheel condition.

Getting a new wheelset for around $200 (assuming 700c rim brake) should not be a problem.

Troul 

x2.

IDK if it's just from my experience, but even if the customer brought in the correct new parts (aside from a hub) to rebuild an existing bare rim, the LBS will likely reject the work. Supplying a hub might be hit or miss for them to accept the work, but I have been turned away more than once when supplying my own (brand new) spokes/nipples.
The same LBS's that turned me away, didn't mind me bringing them the wheel assembly assembled to have them tension/true it. Kinda weird, but I sorta understand it.

cyccommute 

Check your area for a co-op. They usually have wheels that will work for cheap.

79pmooney

Sadly, as others said above, re-building this wheel is poorly spent money. If the rim is in good shape,you could save it and have a new wheel built with it, new spokes and new or used hub. If it were me, I'd go to a coop, find used Shimano hub, Ultegra or 105, and build around it. Hubs have very little room for speed improvement. You can get a small amount of weight reduction but not much else. But, hubs absolutely have to work. Those Shimanos are the ho-hum hubs that work forever. Research the models that take you cassette. Number of spokes to match your rim if you plan to re-use it.

Cheaper almost certainly is to buy a wheel off Craig's List or elsewhere. I'd still stay Shimano. (I say this despite having owned exactly one Shimano rear hub in 50 years. I started French, then Campagnolo, Sanshin on the Fuji I raced and for years after. When I went cassette it was to Campy because the Shimano shifters simply do not work for me. But I have several front Shimano hubs. Not much to say about them except boring. All I do is ride them, wipe the road grime off and every few years, replace the brake-worn rims.)

dedhed

https://www.velomine.com/index.php?m...oducts_id=6204

JohnDThompson 

Unless you provide the labor to rebuild the wheel around a new hub, I suspect the cost of replacing the entire wheel would be comparable to that of paying a wheel builder to rebuild the wheel for you.

Iride01 

I use to tighten spokes and true my own wheels. Then I started to realize how some spokes could be way over tensioned and others very loose and the wheel be perfectly true.

Not wishing to get more special tools, I decided to just let the LBS deal with my wheels and spokes. They seldom charge very much, even if the wheels take some time for them to go over.


Not much help for your current issue. However, you should go to a LBS and find out what their solution might be and how much they say it'd cost. When my son tacoed his front wheel, they found a less expensive but similar quality wheel for a very decent price.

And maybe take them your other wheels too and let them check the tensions to be sure they aren't about to do the same or other disaster.

Dan Burkhart 

If your rim is still good, it is possible to rebuild with a conventional 24 hole hub. I have done this, but it took a bit of calculating. What I did was to lace the drive side with the same length spokes and laced the non drive side with about a 10mm differential between the leading and trailing spokes.
If you can source a paired spoke hub, that would be preferable.

livedarklions

Guess I'd be a bit nervous about DIY on this if I managed to break the hub by tightening spokes.

pdlamb

Oof! Which is worse, tuition or nursing books?

This is the price range I was thinking of, though you might want to add $20 to have a shop check the tension. You might be able to beat that price buying a single wheel, especially if there's a coop nearby.

urbanknight

Agreed. I just figured, based on her past posts, that she is the type to do much of her own wrenching. Of course, I still wouldn't recommend it considering the spokes and rims are probably on borrowed time as well.

VegasTriker

To the best of my knowledge, there are no bike co-ops in Las Vegas and VegasJen lives 50 miles west of the Las Vegas valley. There are few used wheels available on our local CL. There is a pair of Vuelta wheels on CL for $100 in North Las Vegas. That seems to be it for an affordable replacement.

Bald Paul

Well, maybe not.
I have a Mavic rear wheel for Shimano 11 speed cassette (you would need a spacer for your 8 speed) that was only used indoors on a trainer. 20 spoke count with flat bladed spokes. No skewer. I can get a shipping quote, and you can have it for the price of shipping. Let me know.

csport

What is the model of the hub? You may be able to get away with a different hub which has similar dimensions. The most important one is PCD - diameter of the circle spoke holes are on. It affects the spoke length more or less on a 1:1 ratio. Flange offset is less important.

For example, many Shimano hubs have 44 or 45mm PCD. I was able to successfully rebuild a rim brake wheelset using Shimano T610 hubs to disc brake using M6000 hubs.

spelger

that is a very generous offer. very kind of you.