Broken Hub?

I have just re-acquired an old bike I had many years ago which I sold for IIRC 50GBP and has since
sat completely unused in a shed.

I intend to turn this bike into a fixer (or maybe a single speed) and while in the process of
stripping it all down I discovered a crack around the centre (ish) of the rear hub.

(Picture at http://tjw.hn.org/~tim/hub/hub.jpg (ADSL permitting) )

Is this a usual way for hubs to fail? If I were to remove the axle, would the wheel collapse
completely? (I've removed the QR skewer and I might try using this hub to learn how to build wheels
if it isn't going to disintegrate in my face)

Is this likely to have happened just by being left in a shed for 5 years? Or was I riding around on
a hub like this and just didn't notice?

Finally, the front hub is a matching hub. There is no sign of any damage or cracking but should I
bin it anyway or is this a freak failure or a typical rear hub failure?

(At least there is no chance of me just putting the bike back together and not buying a hub for
it now

Regards,

Tim.

--
God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = - @B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t," and there was light.

http://tjw.hn.org/ http://www.locofungus.btinternet.co.uk/

 

In article <[email protected]>, Tim Woodall
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Finally, the front hub is a matching hub. There is no sign of any damage or cracking but should I
> bin it anyway or is this a freak failure or a typical rear hub failure?

The front should be OK - it's normally the rear which fails - bin it.

Nice photograph.

--
A T (Sandy) Morton on the Bicycle Island In the Global Village http://www.sandymillport.fsnet.co.uk