rainy day projects

It's a rainy day, what's a boy to do? How about a Chris King rear hub rebuild! Ever get that not so fresh feeling out of your King hub? If you're rear hub has ever ceased to freewheel effectively where you can't coast or backpedal, it's time for some loving. Sometimes it's just a bearing adjustment. That's the easy one. Two 5mm wrenches is all you need for that. Sometimes, though, there are more serious issues afoot. If you've adjusted correct bearing tension but the hub still drags, the next easiest thing to check is the main hubshell driveside bearing, the outside one in the picture. A relube will generally do the trick. King bearings can be easily rebuilt. If you do, make sure to use King's own RingDrive lube. It's not too thick or too thin and will allow your King bearing to roll smoothly. On occasion, though, you may need to replace a seal, a snapring, or both.
If you get it back together and you still have drag, the next thing to do is attack the driveshell. There are two bearings in there that can stick, the needle bearing and the inside driveshell bearing.

This particular hub needed service on all those bearings. The non drive side hubshell bearing was rolling super smooth so we left that one alone. This baby is back together and spinning great. It was a good rainy day project.

I'm not the only one working with rainy day projects. Check out what Peter did with his SC Blur... No need for a trick adjustable seatpost on this bike. P is good enough he can operate the HiteRite on the fly, too.