On Mon, 07 Apr 2003 21:50:00 +0000, Ken wrote:
> "Mike" <
[email protected]> wrote in
news:89nka.2573$kd1.2578127 @newssrv26.news.prodigy.com:
>
>> Has anyone tried polishing the surface in a hub where the bearings roll? I just wonder if this
>> could reduce the friction?
>
> Everyone was doing that 30 years ago. Today, bearings are a lot better and many hubs have sealed
> bearing cartridges that you can't easily polish yourself.
Huh? No one I knew was doing anything of the sort 30 years ago. Maybe using oil rather than grease
to reduce the insignificant friction of the bearings, but mostly they were too busy drilling holes
in components to bother with the bearings.
If you think you can improve a bearing race by polishing it by hand, you are mistaken.
Bearings are not better than what was available 30 years ago. Find an old Campy hub from that era,
and you will feel what smooth bearings can be. Granted, a lot of junk was on the market 30 years
ago, and bearings on cheap bikes now are better than what was on next-to-top quality bikes then. But
the bearings themselves are essentially the same, and the races of a good hub from that era were
excellent.
But the amount of friction, even from a not-so-great bearing, is far less than the rolling
resistance from your tires, which in turn is far less than the resistance of your jacket flopping
around in the breeze.
--
David L. Johnson
__o | And what if you track down these men and kill them, what if you _`\(,_ | killed all of us?
From every corner of Europe, hundreds, (_)/ (_) | thousands would rise up to take our places.
Even Nazis can't kill that fast. -- Paul Henreid (Casablanca).
