I was relating a tale about my Mango to fellow velo riders last weekend- they thought it might be of interest to readers.
Not long after I got the Mango in 2013, I, along with the other 2 Mango owners in Brisbane at the time, entered the Brisbane- Gold Coast ride. On the return of that 190km outing, one of the Mango drivers alerted me to the fact that my rear wheel was wobbling side to side.
After checking things out, it became obvious that the nut securing the rear axle was very, very loose. I tightened it up as tight as I could get it and continued on my way, checking it's tightness regularly. (Note, the axle is single sided, secured by a nut on the LHS only)
No further problems were evident with the rear axle bolt for the next 4 years!
Earlier this year, I broke a spoke on the rear wheel, in true Sods law manner, it was on the freewheel side. I am quite happy repairing spokes, so I tried to remove the freewheel without success. Off to Ridgeway Cycles, who after working on it for over an hour were able to get the freewheel off. To everyone's amazement the freewheel had been loctited on! WTF!
Anyway, in their endeavours, the Ridgeway boys also found the bearings needed replacing, so I got them to do that work as well.
With the wheel at home, I re- installed it and while tightening the axle nut, I found when I tightened it up as before, the rear wheel didn't spin all that freely. I eased back on the tension and found that the wheel spun best when the axle nut was finger tight!
Thinking about this overnight, I decided to loctite the hell out of the nut, tighten it to obtain the best spin without side to side play, mark the position of the nut with Tippex so that I could tell if it moved and consult the Velo Guru, Harry Lieben of SinnerBikes in the Netherlands.
Before I got anything back from Harry, I took the Mango out for a test ride after the recommended Loctite curing period, to see how it rolls.....wow, it was a completely different machine, faster, easier to pedal, better up hill..... a revelation!
By now Harry had replied, it seems my problem had become only a recently observed issue with some other velos. The rear wheel has an aluminium spacer between the bearings. Under load, as in very tightly done up axle nuts, the spacer compresses. Then the bearings take too much load, hence why mine were stuffed! SinnerBikes are now in the process of making a stainless steel spacer for the rear wheel.
So for the last 4 years I have been effectively riding with 'a brake on'.
Ever since my loctiting the nut, I have been setting PRs left, right and centre! It is a pleasure to ride, moreso now that the 'brake' is off!!
