Was lucky to get back from Wexford last Sunday when the occasional pinging sound turned to a more ominous sound.
The story has its roots the day after Paddy's day - when incidentally the bike got buried in a bog hole up to the front axle. The following day in Donegal I went off alone & occasionally heard a pinging noise which had no apparent cause. Eventually I persuaded myself it was gravel hopping off the mudguard.
The noise went away & I went home; cleaning the bike revealed slight play in the front wheel. Tightening the axle slightly addressed this & the wheel ran smoothly with no tight spots or no apparent roughness so off to Wexford sets I. All ran smoothly till approaching Newsastlewest coming home – the pinging returned; by Abbeyfeale if became a gentle but intermittent grinding noise. Stopping revealed no front wheel play; coasting did not throw any more light on the source of the intermittent noise, As I approached Tralee an intermittent vibration in the handle bars became apparent; I backed off the pace a little & got home.
Detailed examination did now reveal roughness in the front wheel – removing the axel resulted in a handful of loose chipped balls. The wheel bearing had failed but had survived close to 1.000 kilometres since the noise first heard in Donegal.
I replaced them today but was lucky to get so far on the old ones or stupid for not spotting what was happening earlier, Gravel it was not & tightening up the front axle a smidgen was not a great move – lucky lucky boy. As they say “the wheel turns” but ...............................
The story has its roots the day after Paddy's day - when incidentally the bike got buried in a bog hole up to the front axle. The following day in Donegal I went off alone & occasionally heard a pinging noise which had no apparent cause. Eventually I persuaded myself it was gravel hopping off the mudguard.
The noise went away & I went home; cleaning the bike revealed slight play in the front wheel. Tightening the axle slightly addressed this & the wheel ran smoothly with no tight spots or no apparent roughness so off to Wexford sets I. All ran smoothly till approaching Newsastlewest coming home – the pinging returned; by Abbeyfeale if became a gentle but intermittent grinding noise. Stopping revealed no front wheel play; coasting did not throw any more light on the source of the intermittent noise, As I approached Tralee an intermittent vibration in the handle bars became apparent; I backed off the pace a little & got home.
Detailed examination did now reveal roughness in the front wheel – removing the axel resulted in a handful of loose chipped balls. The wheel bearing had failed but had survived close to 1.000 kilometres since the noise first heard in Donegal.
I replaced them today but was lucky to get so far on the old ones or stupid for not spotting what was happening earlier, Gravel it was not & tightening up the front axle a smidgen was not a great move – lucky lucky boy. As they say “the wheel turns” but ...............................
