Pro Lite Bracciano

BDK

What maintenance do the bearings in this wheelset need?The rear wheel seems a little rough,the front seems fine.About 4000 km on them and kept very clean.I was thinking of getting a set of easton tubs second hand of a local guy,would they make much of a difference over the pro lite wheels in average speed?I dont race,but I move along quick enough-hopefully quicker with the eastons.Thanks.

Outside of racing, tubs make very little sense beyond posing value. Getting a flat with them is fine if you have a team car following with spare wheels but otherwise is a massive, and expensive, pain in the ass.

The performance benefits are marginal at best, due to recent advances in clincher tyres. In fact many of the pros now race on clinchers, indeed I remember reading about Tony Martin winning a TT on clinchers.

If you have your heart set on them, do whatever makes you happy, but you wont be going noticeably faster.

Edit: Forgot to answer the first question. From what I can see looking at them on the net, the bearings are sealed, meaning you can't regrease them yourself, you just replace the whole unit. Some wheels of this type have an adjustable bearing pre load, which, if set too tight can cause the bearings to run rough.

doozerie

I've read that you can ride on tubulars when they puncture - on the face of it that suggests that you could simply ride home on a punctured tub, but I've never seen that qualified. Does anyone know how far you can really ride on a tub before you just shred the tyre (I'm assuming here that eventually you will damage the tub but I'm speculating on that too)? If you could "safely" ride/limp along for, say, 20 or 30 miles on a punctured tub then the prospect of a flat might hold less fear.

doozerie

I went looking for the Pro-Lite hub servicing manual online, as I reckon I may need to do a job on the rear bearings of my Pro-Lite Luciano's soon. As background info, here is what the old wheel service manual says (from a quick check I can no longer find this particular service manual online, I have a local copy, but this seems like a new version with different info in it including different into to that below for hub maintenance):

Pro-Lite hubs are machined to amazingly high standards. We are in an amazing position compared to other manufacturers; we never get warranty issues with them. Why? You might ask. Well the answer is simple. Every hub on assembly if torque to a special tension unique to each of the hubs we use. This means that while we are building them into wheels we apply a great deal of pressure to the flange. This effectively stretches the hub and reduces the friction on the bearing surface. It is critical that the tension used to pre-tension the wheel is applied exactly, so that after building the reduced friction is correct, but also there is no excess play in the hub and bearing surfaces. If you decide to strip down your hubs, ensure that a qualified mechanic re-sets them exactly as before.

We recommend cleaning the hubs with hot soapy water and not trying to use spray type solvent based cleaners as all these do is break down the grease and damage the seals. There are many types of cleaning brushes on the market and a little bit of imagination will let you choose the right one for the job. Remember you are looking to clean around the nipples which should be periodically oiled, the flange area again which needs to be periodically oiled and the freehub body. Don’t forget to clean the quick release and re-oil it as well as the inside of the hollow axle.

Occasionally you might remove the cassette body from the hub and clean out the drive mechanism. It is not necessary to remove the cassette for this operation, but you can if you wish. This mechanism is incredibly robust and well sealed, but removing dirt that builds up is often helpful.

To disassemble the front or rear hub, please follow the separate instructions available from the Pro-Lite website.

Here are the videos on Pro-Lite hub maintenance which show a hub being disassembled and reassembled. It looks like at least one of the tools needed for this could be tricky to come by - sealed bearing hubs that I have encountered in the past let you seat a cartridge bearing with a regular socket head as you seat the bearings before installing the axle, but the drive side bearing on the Pro-lites appear to be seated with the axle already in place and you'd need a very deep socket, or similarly tall and strong cylinder, to seat the bearing on those. Bah!

Edit: Here is a browsable copy of the old service manual, in case anyone is interested.

BDK

Thanks for all that lads.I suppose I was hoping to hear that speeds would go through the roof with those easton tubs,they do look good on,which might justify the price.Not keen on aluminium braking surface compared to 56mm carbon...