I bought a second hand bike a number of months ago and the rear wheel eventually became disfunctional to the point where I couldn’t cycle it anymore.
I took it apart and it seems that the axel was glued together. Is this normal? Any suggestions for a fix?
by Dalcassian15
8 Comments
This reminds me of Matilda and her dirty car dealing dad. Someone took a page from that dudes book and thought as long as I get rid of it for some cash, who cares!
Very, very not normal. Wow. Someone was creative. Time to hit the bike shop. They can either install a new axle for you, or match what you have so you can install it yourself. Either way will require removing that freewheel for access.
After further reflection before hitting the post button, I think I’d also want them to make sure the cups the bearings sit in inside the hub are still all right before proceeding.
Not normal, buy a new axle.
Are you sure the axle wasn’t just worn and finally failed? That sort of looks more like old dirty grease with lots of metal dust in it than glue to me.
Yeah, for real, is that glue? Or dirty old grease? Like glue would be hard and set, not gooey. If it’s gooey, it’s grease. That is the exact point where an axle with a freewheel always breaks. Very common break. If that bike is a seven or eight speed (or more) you might consider switching to a wheel with a freehub. It will cost more money but you probably won’t ever break an axle again.
My opinion: a crack was initiated, grease worked its way into it, eventually the crack grew until failure with grease having worked its way in over time.
Edit: avid cyclist, almost car free, mechanical engineer with a minor in material engineering.
The axle has snapped. That’s grease, not glue. There’s no glue in the world that could repair an axle.
It’s a fairly cheap hub and broken axles aren’t uncommon, your local bike shop should be able to fit a replacement, unless the internal cups have been damaged.
[Occam’s razor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor)