Hope XC Rear Hub Service!

My old wheels have been on Cath’s bike for a while. The rear wheel bearings in the Hope XCs have given up the ghost with the amount of riding she has been doing recently, so I thought I would have a go at the service myself.

I found out the bearing reference numbers ’6001 2rs’ from the Hope tech website and then found a local supplier to get some top notch SKF ones. I can recommend PT Bearings of Wolverhampton, they have an ebay shop and they arrived the next day! http://www.ptandbearings.co.uk

It all started well enough but I could not get the axle shaft and bearing to come out of the brake side of the hub body. I used bigger and bigger hammers and soon had shards and splinters of wood flying all over the place, forget the ’soft-faced hammer’ in the service notes.

I went inside to check the service notes again, with pins and needles in my hands from all the banging, before I got the sledge hammer out. However, a quick Google search suggested a fantastic idea. Wrap the hub in an old cotton rag and then soak it with boiling water straight out of the kettle.

A fairly gentle tap from the sledge hammer (well, not that gentle) and it came out, the water having expanded the aluminum hub enough to release everything. Other than a particularly pesky circlip, the rest went like a dream, tapping in the new bearings with a 17mm socket as I haven’t got a working vice at the moment.

So, a complete hub rebuild for £12.82 and a smear of grease. Can’t be bad!