So what was the easy fix, or lacking that your favorite brand bearing?
I put a lot of power out and have broke a great many bike parts but few bearings other than the old cup and ball hubs mainly breaking the shitty shimano pawls(sun ringle hub a close second) which got me into the Hope(those were rough as hell after six months but I snapped the outer axle on that as well replaced all internals(renowned for shitty 142 outer axles(135 fun bolt OK) & factory bearings), Hadley, King, Onyx hubs. No issues whatsoever on Hadley or King which I ran for quite a while, well except for noise, even there Hope is worse.
No attraction to ceramics, that's what the Onyx hub come with. I was just reading up on the pros and cons wondering why they were using them in the first place, seems like a miss spec. Actually will be replacing with all steel bearings.
From all the reading I've been doing in the last couple of days, even from Enduro's website the ceramics all seemed geared toward roadies. Enduro states that for thru-axle application a steel cage for the bearings is better as it keeps the bearings aligned more consistently and the only version of theirs that has that is their ABEC 3s. Their ceramics and ABEC 5 tend to have shitty seals and/or weak cages but are aimed at frictionless spin for those 120KM races, not for the dirt, grime and off road pounding. Most, if not all of the competitors mentioned above use the steel cages and as far as I can tell from specs most are about an ABEC-3 rating though not many use that scale for MTBs likely nothing above that really necessary. C3 tolerance/spacing seems to be the other common spec. So ironically within the Enduro brand, if you use their "best" bearings you'll likely smoke them faster all things being equal with that brand.
Going by the bearing wear in these hubs the Verinent and Onyx in-house Ceramic Hybrid bearings are even worse than the Enduros CH.
Thanks, NTNs looking good(most info I can find) with steel cages which Enduro says are better but very few of theirs come with them(only all steel if at all and no indication by part number).
You service as frequently as you feel necessary given the operating environment. As a clyde, you might consider a more frequent service interval. As a general rule, I service most hub bearings around 1K (miles). You had mentioned these were fairly low mileage though.
What do mean when you refer to "Bearing Failure"? Did it actual fail, as in come apart or was it just rough or gritty?
Hard to say if it's a hard failure yet as I haven't pulled it out yet but last time I did pull wheel off and give everything a check, axle was OK and bearings were smooth, then went to Utah for some riding late Oct, but hadn't used the bike really since then. Was just getting around to maintenance on that one when I loosened wheel and axle was broke(That wheelset got swapped now and then between Riot and ROS9 so it was checked occasionally). The second hub/bike I laced that hub in at the end of last summer but only had about a dozen rides(after receiving 29x2.8 vigilantes) post Oct due to covid lockdowns etc, only looked at that one due to first hub issue.
A bit of a surprise at the spread of bearing brands used between the 2 hubs.
Edit: The good news is I have the right parts combo for one good hub
That hub had very few miles on it in SoCal not really extreme conditions. How often do you service "sealed" bearings? Wouldn't have helped the axle break which may have led to bearing failur, hard to say, chicken and the egg situation there.
In my two sets of Classics, I've also had the non-drive side bearing out of my older set get that not-so-fresh feeling. Replaced it with a spare I had laying around, but I have since purchased a SKF MTRX that I plan to swap in there one of these days. That seems to be the most vulnerable bearing. I've also done the MFU retrofit to run MicroSpline on that hub, it eliminates the axle and cap threads on the drive side.
When I tore down the Hope Trials SS hub it probably had 6 months on it, the radial bearings were all shot and replaced with Enduro still running. I replaced the needle bearing as well but I think was OK. Looking up the SKF site now.
Edit: After researching replacement bearings a further, I'm thinking of going with an all ABEC-5 Enduro with SRS seal. Everything I can find is the ceramics have balls harder than the races which tend to make them wear out races(XD-15 Enduros possible exception, but $100) and in the quest for fast spinning ceramic bearings manufacturers have given to using shitty seals like LLB's at best which are not full contact, VV's which are even worse like on Enduro Zero Ceramics. This just compounds the problem of races wearing out once contaminants work in. In a usage like hubs where dirt and water are present I'd rather go for the better sealing like ABEC-5 with SRS sealing which will likely wear better. I've had freaking Formula SS hubs with cheaper bearings that ran for years without issue.
Tore down second hub and that one has all Verinent brand hybrid bearings, non-drive side bearing in the second one is the one causing the rough feeling not horrible but noticeable, now the choice of replacing or run it more. Outer axle etc are in good shape on 2nd hub.
The first hub probably has 1000 miles or so on it, second a couple of hundred maybe. I'm a clyde(north of 225# suited up) so maybe factory bearings not durable enough.
Check your drive side cap for looseness, in their vids they show loctite used for that cap when threaded on. Took one of my wheels of today and outside axle had broken where it threads into the cap, broken piece was extracted with fingers. I would check this wheel for axle looseness somewhat regularly, tightened several times. Noticed this drive side bearing rough and does not appear to be ceramic hybrid from the P/N just generic no brand 6902 RS. Either the cap came loose enough to cause failure or bearing caused it, possibly shitty external axle.
I have a second Onyx(both SS) on another bike with much less miles on it maybe 200, that cap was finger tight but no wiggle when thru-axle tight, also did not appear to have had loctite applied was finger loose, need to tear down more as once tightened feels a little rough maybe, this one had Verinent 6902RH hybrid ceramic. On first hub rest of bearings were Enduro ceramic hybrid LLBs, not great but not bad like 3 out 5 IIRC on Enduro's grade scale.
Crap back top my insufferably loud Hope Trials SS which was broken once in same manner, now has steel outer axle so at least bombproof.
All are 142 hubs
Edit: It would appear break occurred within the width of the bearing, only ~1mm of Aluminum at break
Edit 2: Reassembled broken pieces, it looks like cap was threaded on as a far as it will go. The gap between the cap face and shoulder on the outer axle looks is 0.25" on my calipers or 6.3mm, bearing is 7mm wide so it must have been tight together at time of breakage, so looks more like a shitty-part/toasted bearing. Threads are clean in the exposed portion in previous pic so threads were almost totally engaged into axle cap.
Edit 3: It appears the first generic bearing may be Onyx in-house brand like below but the Onyx branding was worn off due to the axle break
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