I purchased a set of these wheels online 2nd hand and while they’ve been really good to use, servicing them have been a nightmare and has cost me a lot more than what I have imagined.
After winning them on Ebay for just over a $1000 I used them on a Gran Fondo with a few steep climbs, they did their job even if my legs were not exactly up to the task. I noticed one day that the bearings we’re a bit rough so I decided to have them replaced by an owner-operator bike mechanic. He was able to replace the front and the rear hub bearings, unfortunately the rear hub stopped freewheeling once it was mounted on the bike.
I returned the wheel back to him and we decided to put the old bearings back to see if that made a difference, according to him they should be working as they were the same part numbers. So $120 later, I’m pretty much back at the beginning. While the front bearings were replaced with a new set, they didn’t actually need it.
I decided to have another mechanic look at it as the hub didn’t look like it was sitting flush against the cassette. We found the hub seal was not seated correctly on the hub body and we needed a special DT Swiss tool to fit it. Not only did we find this issue, but the freehub bearings were completely shot and needed replacement. New Shimano 11 speed DT Swiss Feehub $119.99
The DT Swiss service tools are roughly $300USD and there was no way I was going to pay that much to have a hub seal reseated properly. I found a aluminium DT Swiss rear hub service tool kit from US Ebay which cost me $80 shipped to Sydney.
After getting the new freehub and the new tools to seat, it was taken back to the mechanic again to rebuild. Last night I rode the bike as well as riding 160km last weekend. The wheels felt like they were rubbing and wasn’t coasting as well as they should have been. So now we go back to what feels like the start.
According to the Trek’s documentation, I require the following bearing set.
If I’m going to fix this once and for all, I want to make sure that I have the correct parts i.e bearings, spacers, etc…
Considering HSC ceramic bearings at the moment and have contacted them to confirm which bearings I need for these.
Update: 20/11/2017
I’ve forgotten that I was in the middle of writing this blog entry. I hope it will help someone who’s in the same boat as me.
I took the plunge and ordered the bearings from HSC. I ordered two sets of bearing # 6902 and #6802
Unlike the normal DT Swiss hubs, one side of the Aeolus uses and oversized bearing which is the #6902 since I have the Aeolus 5 as well, I decided to upgrade both.
Drive Side Rear = #6902
Non Drive Side Rear = #6802
With the amount of time and money I’ve spent on this wheelset I finally thought I was coming close to solving the issue which I was having. When the bearings arrived I moved quickly to fit them using my clone DT Swiss service stool, sadly my woes didn’t end there. While the tension is not as bad as it was initially, I can still feel the drag on the wheels. I decided to just bite the bullet and seek help from the pro mechanics.
I called The Odd Spoke in Dural and advised them that I wanted to take my rear wheel and explain to them the issue. I dropped the wheels off in the morning and picked them up late that afternoon. The mechanic explained to me that the tolerance level with the bearings and hub shells are tiny hence the need for these DT Swiss service tools. All in all, I paid $37 including a new ratchet spring which was bent out of shape. He showed me the difference with the freewheel and I wished that I had just taken the wheels to them in the first place.
I certainly learnt a lot in this journey
