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BMX Bike Wheels & Hubs

Wheels…

Putting wheels on is easy, but keeping them true can be tricky.  If your wheel is making a clicking noise, then your spokes are loose.  To tighten spokes, turn them to the left.  Use a spoke wrench to do this.  Buy a book or a video if you want to learn how to true and build wheels.

Hubs…

Your hub has 5 parts inside it:  The axle (1), bearing spacer (2), locknut (3), washer (4), and an outer nut (5).  Your axle is in the center of the wheel.  It is what the wheel is stabilized on.  The bearing spacer is to keep your bearings in place.  If your hub is loose, that means that your spacer is not tight enough on your bearings.  The locknut is to be squished into the spacer so it won’t come loose as easy.  The washer protects your dropout some from the nuts, and the outer nut is what attaches the wheel to the frame.

To replace bearings/Tighten hubs…

First, to replace the ball bearings, take off all the nuts and washers on one side of the hub and slip the axle out the other side. Pull the balls out and clean out the cups.  Put new grease in them and put it back together the same way you took it apart.  Screw in your first nut that holds the bearings in.  Once you have that in a place where it’s not too tight or too loose, slide a washer on.  Then, slide your next nut on.  Hold on to the first nut with a flat wrench and squish the second into it with another wrench.  This will help it from coming loose.  Now you’re set, and you can put your wheel back on.

My wheel doesn’t spin well…

If your wheel doesn’t spin well, chances are your bearings are too tight.  Getting bearings to just the right amount of tightness might take a little while, and can be frustrating at first, but it’s either that or sealed bearings.

For wheels you always want to go with sealed bearings. They are stronger, more reliable and easier to work on. They last longer too. Usually nothing goes wrong with sealed bearings. One of the few things that can happen is you can blow out a bearing. If you happen to do this then you landed hard enough that if you had an unsealed hub, you would have blown it out. I recommend sealed bearings before many upgrades on a bike. It just makes everything easier.