Stinkin Surly Hub

Before you read this post, see my follow up -- where upon I realize what a dolt I am -- there is a right way to remove and install these bearings. When I wrote this, I didn't know the right way. That is the core issue here -- not the hubs.

The hub on my fixed Trek 720 is screwed up. I put the new forks on the bike last week and took it for a spin around the block. Immediately it was obvious that something in the rear wheel was screwy. Turns out I shot the bearings already.

This is the "new" Surly Fixed/Free solid axle; 135mm hub. It takes the Enduro 7901 RS bearings.

Well. I've not even had this hub for a year, so it's kind of lame that the bearings are shot already. And it's not like this is my only bike and it's got thousands of miles on it.

But to be fair, I am hard on my bikes. I don't really maintain stuff as I should. I barely keep the the chains in order. This time of year I tend to take notice of my chains only when they are orange with rust. So I'm certainly not out in the garage fussing with the bearings in my hubs. And since these are sealed bearings, why should I? Right?

So, it's not a huge deal that I busted the bearings already. I can kind of live with that. But the problem is, the bearing races are stuck in the hub. The hub is aluminum and the races are steel and they're seized up. Therefore, I can't swap in new bearings until I can unlock the old ones. Nice. Now that is cheesy.

This means that when the hub was manufactured either no grease was applied to that interface, or not enough grease was applied. The dust cover on the hub is great to keep out dust, but the world is wet too.

So I've learned my lesson.

If I buy a Surly hub again, I will pop out the bearings first thing and grease up the inside of the hub. And then apply a big fat layer of grease under the dust cap to ward of the wetness.

Meanwhile, I'm applying some harsh petroleum-based hazardous poison anti-rust stuff to the hub. If that doesn't work after a few days -- I'm getting out the torch.

I like Surly stuff. But this bugs me. I can't help but think of the too-cool, super hip Surly dudes building this stuff and then forgetting details like this. It's the execution! The details. Come on guys.

It's like the bottle-opener on the TugNutt -- it's really cool -- cause it shows that you drink beer, but it gets in the way of fenders. And I know how hip and cool it is to wear the mud tail of shit up your back after you ride in the rain, but frankly, you shouldn't be drinking beer if you must have a bottle opener attached to your bike to do so. Errg.