All:
Gotta go with Phil on this one. In thirty years of "serious" cycling, I have never personally broken a rear hub axle, nor has anyone done so that I've ridden with on a regular basis.
At the several shops I wrenched in during my "early years" I noticed more than once that some customers broke things like BB spindles, hub axles, spokes, etc. repeatedly. While a real zinger of a pothole that didn't get seen could certainly do it, it seemed more like an issue of riding or pedaling style coupled with the number of miles and lack of proper setup / maintenance than any other thing I could point to.
Pulling on my Kevlar Jockeys,
Greg Parker A2 MI USA Currently 50% of the temperature that we had last week! (43 F vs. 86)
In a message dated 4/29/02 2:16:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org writes:
> From: Tom Dalton <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [CR]Phil Wood Hub Timeline?Quality?Axle breakage
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>
>
> You and your customers must be very, very lucky and the roads in your area
> must be very, very smooth. Go ahead and disagree, but discounting the vast
> majority of riders who may be riding around with misaligned dropouts,and
> considering only myself and my friends who I am certain have correctly
> aligned dropouts, I know that axles break. There is always a specific
> imapct that does the deed, but it happens. If none of you axles ever
> break, I can only assume one of two things:
> 1) You have a super-de-duper ultra-precise method of aligning dropouts and
> anything else is inadequate.
> 2) You don't ride very much or very hard. No offense intended, I'd be the
> first to admit that I haven't had so much as a flat in years, due to lack
> of miles.
> Philcycles@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 4/29/02 8:35:22 AM, NortonMarg@aol.com writes:
>
> << We had a long thread on this a couple of months ago. Hitting pot holes
> without posting on the pedals (derriere off saddle), or jumping giant road
> holes, will bend axles even with perfectly aligned rear drop outs. If you
> take the wheel out and put it back in with the axle in any other than the
> original position, you will bend it again. Do this 3 or 4 times, and the
> CrMo
> lets go at that little stress riser at the root of the thread adjacent to
> the
> inside edge of the cone. It's a whole lot less of a problem with 5 speed
> spacing, but is a fact of life with 6 and 7 speed spacing, depending on
> your
> riding style! >>
>
> I could not disagree more. If your dropouts are aligned it's not a problem
> If
> it's a fact of life how come it never happens to me or my customers? Can't
> be
> luck.
> Phil Brown
> In sunny (for the next 6 months) NoHo, Ca