Rear Axle Shimmy?

I hit a bump or pothole on my celebratory spring ride this afternoon, and immediately noticed that my rear wheel had significantly more drag, about five miles from home.  Once I had it home, inspection reveals nothing wrong with the wheel, but it easily has a 1/4" of play on the axle.  I'm debating whether or not to attempt to address this myself, or bother one of my friendly neighborhood mechanics with my '71 Suburban...

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Permalink Reply by mike w. on March 9, 2014 at 4:28pm

Broken axle. Been there, done that... easy fix. Do it ASAP. If you don't have the tools you need, any good mech will.

Permalink Reply by Tim Heckman on March 9, 2014 at 6:17pm
Thanks guys! That is what I suspected as well.
Permalink Reply by Hey! Bike Shop Guy on March 10, 2014 at 3:28am

Almost for sure that is a broken axle.  Fix it fast or you are going to destroy the hub if you have not already.

You can get a new axle at a bike shop, but they may not have on in stock for that.  Depending on the condition now is also the time to replace worn out cone nuts and you should replace the bearings with the axle as well.

If course if that is the original wheel on your old Schwinn take this as an opportunity to upgrade and get yourself a new wheel with an aluminum rim and a better hub.  You will drop a significant amount of weight and the braking will be much improved.

Permalink Reply by Tim Heckman on March 10, 2014 at 4:02am


 

If course if that is the original wheel on your old Schwinn take this as an opportunity to upgrade and get yourself a new wheel with an aluminum rim and a better hub.  You will drop a significant amount of weight and the braking will be much improved.

It's a rebuilt wheel from one of my local bike shops, with a few thousand miles on it since then.  But that brings up another question...

 

I replaced the wheel last year with an aluminum wheel, had an accident (skimmed a curb, turning too wide at 15 mph) a few hundred miles later and bent the rim.  Local bike shop attempted to fix, only to start having it break spokes shortly thereafter.  At that point, they convinced me that the aluminum wheel was never a good idea, and sold me the current rebuilt steel wheel.

So, if I go back to an aluminum wheel, is there one that is recommended, and is comparable in strength to the old Schwinn wheels?

Permalink Reply by Hey! Bike Shop Guy on March 10, 2014 at 5:41am

What bike shop told you that?  It is some of the worst advice I have ever heard.  Selling somebody a steel wheel is doing them a disservice.

If you want strong have a wheel built to a CR-18 or Velocity Synergy; they are pretty much all that is out there when it comes to a double wall 630 rim.  If you switch to longer brakes and run a 700 you open up the options.

You are not going to get an aluminum rim that is as strong on it's own as the steel rim, it's just a matter of material strength.  However unless you are really abusing the bike by hitting every curb and pothole you can find it really shouldn't matter if you get a good quality wheel.

Tim Heckman said:


 

If course if that is the original wheel on your old Schwinn take this as an opportunity to upgrade and get yourself a new wheel with an aluminum rim and a better hub.  You will drop a significant amount of weight and the braking will be much improved.

It's a rebuilt wheel from one of my local bike shops, with a few thousand miles on it since then.  But that brings up another question...

 

I replaced the wheel last year with an aluminum wheel, had an accident (skimmed a curb, turning too wide at 15 mph) a few hundred miles later and bent the rim.  Local bike shop attempted to fix, only to start having it break spokes shortly thereafter.  At that point, they convinced me that the aluminum wheel was never a good idea, and sold me the current rebuilt steel wheel.

So, if I go back to an aluminum wheel, is there one that is recommended, and is comparable in strength to the old Schwinn wheels?

Permalink Reply by Gecko on March 10, 2014 at 5:42am

I don't know who or what shop told you that aluminum wheels are weaker than steel.  If you hit a curb at 15mph, ANY wheel will be substantially affected.  They probably had to overtighten the spokes near the bend to get it back to a semblance of being true, which is why you had multiple spokes fail after they fixed it.  A properly built aluminum wheel with a straight rim and correct spoke tension is leaps and bounds above the best steel wheel.  Divvy bikes and downhill mountain bikes, for example, have aluminum wheels, and those are some of the toughest bikes out there.  Usually aluminum wheels are manufactured to closer tolerances and come with higher quality hubs/spokes than steel.  The only reason I can see for going back to steel would be to match the front, or to keep the aesthetic of a vintage bike.

The question must be asked: Are you a big guy and do you ride hard?  I used to ride with a guy that was 6'6 and around 325lbs - he kept breaking rear spokes and quite a few axles because of his size, and the fact that he didn't ride "softly".  He ended up with a downhill mountain bike because he kept breaking parts, and refused to change his riding style.

That said, you're still looking for ways to upgrade a Schwinn Suburban.  At some point you have to accept the fact that the Suburban may not be a good bike for what you want to do with it.  Sure, it's cool, and vintage, and you could keep it around to putt around the neighborhood on, but although the frame is very strong and will probably outlive us all, the components are severely lacking in quality and longevity, and the whole bike weighs nearly twice what it needs to.

Permalink Reply by Tim Heckman on March 10, 2014 at 6:52am

 

The question must be asked: Are you a big guy and do you ride hard? 

 

Not small-- (210-220), and ride moderately hard-- I was riding close to 20 mph when I did the damage.  I don't take curbs in general, but have been known to ride off some low ones.

 

That said, you're still looking for ways to upgrade a Schwinn Suburban.  At some point you have to accept the fact that the Suburban may not be a good bike for what you want to do with it.  Sure, it's cool, and vintage, and you could keep it around to putt around the neighborhood on, but although the frame is very strong and will probably outlive us all, the components are severely lacking in quality and longevity, and the whole bike weighs nearly twice what it needs to.

I know.  It's a weakness of mine, and I might outgrow it someday.  I have some other reasons for my attachment, but they are not the point of this thread. However, my mind tells me that if I wear out a component, I'm going to replace it.  If I'm going to replace it, I should replace it in the best engineered method available.

Permalink Reply by Gecko on March 10, 2014 at 12:54pm

I'm inclined to suggest getting another bike and keeping the Suburban for 1)sentimental value and 2)short, easy rides around the neighborhood after replacing the broken axle.  It's not really designed to stand up to the kind of abuse you seem to be subjecting it to.  I have quite a few bikes that are older and more cheaply built than your Suburban, and they've held up fine over many years and many miles.  Then again I don't use them for high speed commuting and jumping off curbs.

Permalink Reply by john eminhizer on March 14, 2014 at 11:53am

An often overlooked contributor to broken axles are dropouts out of parallel and axle spacing differences between your frame and hub that are large enough to throw parallel dropouts out of alignment when the wheel is installed. Both are relatively easy fixes for a mechanic. Of course Chicago streets are the biggest culprit :)  

Permalink Reply by Tim Heckman on July 3, 2014 at 11:12am
Well, it's a combination of my riding style, and outdated wheel technology. Busted axle number three yesterday. I think a Suburban will get converted to 700 wheels after the summer is over.
Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on July 4, 2014 at 3:42am

Converting to a 700 is not going to solve the issue with breaking axles.  For that you will need to switch to a cassette style hub from a freewheel hub.

However, if you are breaking axles that much it may be time to seriously rethink how you ride; even with a freewheel style hub and axle you break a lot of axles.

Tim Heckman said:

Well, it's a combination of my riding style, and outdated wheel technology. Busted axle number three yesterday. I think a Suburban will get converted to 700 wheels after the summer is over.
Permalink Reply by Tim Heckman on July 10, 2014 at 4:50pm
This time it wasn't a broken axle...

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