My Lacroix did not come w/ any washers in between the outer bearing and the locknut. Any other Lacroix owners notice this? Do their locknuts design come w/ some sort of built in washer or something? Is it not really needed?
I replaced my bearings w/ new basic non-ceramic/steel 6001-2rs double sealed, maple ace, deep groove ones, pre-lub’ed and noticed my range diminish by about 6 miles and I only get 16-22 mi range w/ my model setup in the first place so the range anxiety is running rather high right now to say the least lmao (nervous laugh). Matter of fact ran out of juice on a ride and had to hop an uber for the first time.
I wonder did I torque too much? From what I understand it takes a few charges to get full benefit from bearings? Need an average of maybe 50 miles to break in new bearings?
I heard ceramics are a waste of $ on en eBoard but now I’m second guessing that theory.
TO TRUELLY MAXIMIZE SPEED/RANGE.?.? :
Ceramics
Locknut washers or best recommendation for best built in washer locknuts?
Apply proper wrench torque on locknuts? Tighten all the way until gives resistance then back off or apply additional half or full turn?
Also maybe I put too much lube on the gear drive teeth? I read to put about an oz on each side. I put about 3 quarters of an oz so not quite an oz fyi.
Best lube to use for gear drive? Currently using “super lube multi purpose synthetic grease”.
Any thoughts and personal experience feedback much appreciated. Stay safe out there.
That’s actually a good thought bc I re-adjusted the backlash when I replaced my bearings so now that the gear teeth are closer together that must not help the range I’m now getting but I like hearing less rattle. I feel I’m much closer now to the folded paper gear mesh tolerance than I was before.
What would you say the break in period on new bearings generally are? 50 miles?
It’s not the quality or material of bearings, nor is it about breaking them in. And don’t go ceramic. If those fail, they blow up or seize, which is not a safe failure mode. Also no spacer below the locknut doesn’t matter if the locknut is only touching the inner race of the bearing.
Do you have entire axle full of spacers / bearings? Because if you don’t and you crank down too hard you can destroy the bearings and that might be visible on the consumption. The best is if you have the axle full of spacers and then you can crank down without issues, assuming all spacers are the right size. Or if it’s not full of spacers get it to the point where there’s 0 side to side play in the wheel, and then back off until you can feel the tiniest of play.
Too tight of a backlash could also cause large consumption I think. And it definitely wears the gears faster. If you adjust backlash in one spot on the gear, you are supposed to rotate the big gear around fully and check it in all spots. If it’s perfect in one spot it might be too tight in another spot. Also in my experience, if it’s just perfect without the casing, it might be too tight once you put the casing on, with certain gear drives at least. Backlash can sometimes be a hard a thing to nail. What you want is to have the tiniest amount of play in the tightest spot after everything is assembled together. I always do a dry assembly first to confirm if my backlash is good, then I take the casing off, apply fresh loctite to every screw, and grease afterwards.
Oh and also check if your tire pressures are right. It’s definitely suspicious that this happened right after taking the gear drive apart, but it’s not impossible that one of your tubes is slowly leaking and the loss of pressure is causing the loss of range.
HELL YEAH. Appreciate the detail. The range seems to be normal again. Not exactly sure why.
I’m still trying to elevate the bit of rattle/play/vibration. I’m assuming my stock Lacroix mbs rockstar pro 2 nylon hubs are a little out of true. Dont think its the new bearings themselves as I’m getting the same play from 2 different new sets of bearings so thinking aluminum hubs may offer best precision where bearings won’t play and tires sit properly?
What do you think may be the best new hub & tire upgrade for smoothest ride (commute 20 miles daily. Mainly shitty roads.) that also elevate as much vibration/play/rattle??
Thinking mbs rockstar pro 2 alum reg or xl’s. Heard vtoxx v3 r best but like $1800 for 4 is ridonkulous and kaly bx50’s r not sold anymore. Is there a better option in between for best chance of eleviating?