[bank5]

I bought a Surly Karate Monkey a 2 months ago and love the bike. My ride weight is ~200 lbs and I ride it somewhat aggressively, mostly on singletrack with a fair amount of rocks and roots. The front hub is already loose -- so I already need to replace the bearings :madman:

Is this common for fully rigids? I don't want to drop a lot of cash on a new hub or wheel but I could if I need to. Any recommendations for making the bearings last longer?

 

[vindiggitydog]

It depends on the hub you are currently using.....good quality?? 200 lbs+ does not mean you can't run fully rigid, but it does mean you should learn to ride differently. Picking good lines, and riding with awareness are essential. Riding FS makes you a little lazy IMHO. Make sure you have good quality components, and learn to read the trail. Good luck!!

 

[aka brad]

You most certainly are not to big for fully ridge, but as vindiggitydog said you have may need a heavier duty hub. I put together a rigid bike for a person over 200lbs and used 26" tandem wheels that worked out great. You can also look at some of the downhill wheels/ hubs or Phil Woods make a hubs, standard and tandem that will hold up to anything. Guaranteed!

 

[Rich H.]

Not common.

I am 215# and have been riding & racing on the same Hope Pro II front hub on a rigid fork for the past 3 years without any issues. What type of hub are you running? Assuming it is not a Wally World special, it likely had issues before you started riding it rigid.

 

[boomn]

No, those problems definitely aren't right. I'm over 200 with gear, my trails are very rocky, and I like to ride fast and it hasn't been a problem for me. I've spent about 1/3 of my rides over the last three years with a rigid fork and I've only replaced my front bearings once and even then only as a preventative maintenance since I was doing the rear bearings at the time. Never had them actually go bad on me.

Did you get the stock KM build with Surly hubs? If so, those Surly hubs use angular contact bearings that need to be adjusted to remove excess play when first installed, and the adjustment should be checked every now and then too. Maybe they were a bit too tight or too loose from the get-go and wore prematurely because of that?

 

[crux]

I bought a Surly Karate Monkey a 2 months ago and love the bike. My ride weight is ~200 lbs and I ride it somewhat aggressively, mostly on singletrack with a fair amount of rocks and roots. The front hub is already loose -- so I already need to replace the bearings :madman:

Is this common for fully rigids? I don't want to drop a lot of cash on a new hub or wheel but I could if I need to. Any recommendations for making the bearings last longer?

Does not sound normal. By checking Surly site the hubs on the KM look like they have adjustable cones. I would first check and make sure that these are properly adjusted and set. If you have been running loose for to long then you might have shelled the bearings and / or races, but that would be quite a few miles inside of 2 months.

 

[boomn]

Does not sound normal. By checking Surly site the hubs on the KM look like they have adjustable cones. I would first check and make sure that these are properly adjusted and set. If you have been running loose for to long then you might have shelled the bearings and / or races, but that would be quite a few miles inside of 2 months.

FWIW they are cartridge bearings, but they are the kind like in many modern headsets which are have inner and outer races that are angled to allow for adjusting the play out of the bearing.

 

[DanMach86]

Not sure if you are too big.. but I can tell you that you should keep riding it as much as possible. Unless the frame breaks in half just keep going.

 

[bank5]

Thanks for the replies. The hubs are the stock KM ones. There wasn't much play when I first got the bike but it has definitely increased. I found this pdf on the freewheel hub - http://www.surlybikes.com/uploads/downloads/NewHubs_07.pdf but didn't see any other info about hubs on the surly site.

Any ideas on how to adjust them?

 

[aka brad]

Thanks for the replies. The hubs are the stock KM ones. There wasn't much play when I first got the bike but it has definitely increased. I found this pdf on the freewheel hub - http://www.surlybikes.com/uploads/downloads/NewHubs_07.pdf but didn't see any other info about hubs on the surly site.

Any ideas on how to adjust them?

Check out this thread Adjusting Surly new hubs

 

[johnnyb]

I'm #215 on my Karate Monkey and ride all sorts of trail with it. I'm running a shimano hub up front and redline hub in the back. Both have loosened up after I've taken the wheel off. Sometimes the top lock nut on hubs will loosen because they weren't set right to begin with and just the movement of taking the wheel out of the frame will knock the nut loose. On the trail you can just finger-tighten the top nut to get you home okay.

 

[crux]

FWIW they are cartridge bearings, but they are the kind like in many modern headsets which are have inner and outer races that are angled to allow for adjusting the play out of the bearing.

Thanks for the info. I was thinking a bit to old school apparently. As they are cartridge type they you will need to determine where the play is coming into effect. Most likely you could adjust the play out of them using methods described in the thread.

As it is apparent by now I'm just guessing at a means of helping you out. My rigid is a 20mm thru axle fork which is most likely unique. Hopefully you can get your setup to be more reliable without having to buy bearing every few months.

 

[bank5]

Check out this thread Adjusting Surly new hubs

Thanks! I took a closer look at it today and noticed that things had loosened up quite a bit. My other bike has a 20mm thru axle so I didn't realize how you can adjust the Surly hub until I read the linked thread. Once I adjusted the bearings it removed pretty much all of the play.

Time to keep riding and pounding on my bike!