FOMAS roadking deluxe quality issues again. this time the problem is again of poor quality build. Since I last wrote about fomas road king quality I have done 4000+km. fairly decent distance for a road bike. Any bike should be able to do 10000km before starting to break down, but roadking did not even last 50% of its life cycle. I had to completely remove the cycle hub and put it back to fix it.
I was on my usual morning ride, the cycle running condition was all normal. after about 20km the rear wheel started to grind. I could feel the read bearings rub. I stopped and check the wheel, there was a play in bearing of about 1mm . That didn't seem a big issue and I continued. After getting back home I checked the wheel again and the play was slightly more. I thought I will fix it over the weekend and left it at that. Tommorow morning I took it out and tried to move it. the rear wheel had locked. After inspection I realised that the rear bearings are jammed and the break wire is stuck in the liner. two whammies at same time.
On the weekend I finally opened the rear cassette and behold, it was full of sludge. It was combination of water grease and mud. Similar to Shrek's bath tub. Finally opened the rear bearings and as expected the entire rear bearings were ruined. It was as if the rear bearings had exploded. The bearings cone was completely warped and the ball bearings had huge pitting formation. Here are some sample pics.
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| distorted inner cone of bearings |
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| front view of distorted bearings cone, the edges are all broken down |
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| pitting on balls= completely ruined bearing |
I know I don't treat my cycle very good, but this kind of damage seems a little too extreme for a cycle which has not even done 5000 km. I don't know the reason for the break down, I am guessing the sealing ring got damaged and broke loose. eventually water and mud played its part and jammed the whole thing.
After 1.5 hours of meddling with it and running to local bike shop I managed to get a new cone and a set of ball bearings. After cleaning it completely put back all new shiny balls in the hub and applied good amount of grease and put back the rear axle. Now my cycle is back to its old glory. There is only one issue, now it doesn't make the tik tik tik noise when its coasting. cycle is completely silent, like a ninja. Well its not affecting and performance now so will postpone fixing it until it breaks down again. Or maybe I will buy a new cycle.
