Rear Hub Woes

[timmorg]

I'm sending this out as a plea for some help. I just blew my second hub up this weekend. The first time I just thought that a combination of a tight chain, possibly loose sprocket bolts, and a very nasty section of whoops had caused it. After that I installed a nickel-plated Talon hub. This weekend I checked my sprocket bolts in the morning and torqued them down-keep in mind that they were also locktited. I also checked my chain tightness which was at three fingers at the back of the chain slider. I let my cousin ride the back in the afternoon and as he came off a foot high drop off the hub/sprocket flew apart. It completely ripped the sprocket off and broke two tabs off of the hub. So I am faced with the dilema of replacing $500 worth of parts again. At this point I am seriously considering selling this bike and buying something else. Anybodies opinions on what might have caused this?????? ?

Thanks for everybodies help

Joe

[Hootna]

Man, was everything lined up all of the spacers installed etc.

I mean I have never in all of my years seen a hub explode going off of a 1 foot drop. Especially a Talon hub, you would have to put some unreal stress to cause that type of failure.

Now if you said you hit a jump 5th gear pinned and landed on flat ground that is a little different.

[txthumper]

i ride x-country..we go as fast as the bike will carry ya..5th gear pinned..whoops, roots, rocks, g-outs, etc, etc..i aint never heard of that..sure you aint got your spokes to tight?, maybe spacers in wrong?

JR

[MXOldtimer]

I crashed last year in the first turn and hurt my ankle so I couldn't race. I was sitting in the pits and I looked at my rear sprocket,,, it had 6 cracks in the sprocket between the teeth! two cracks went to the hub. It was my second moto and I know for a fact they weren't there prior to my first moto.

Earlier this year we went riding in the desert with some friends. We came back to the trucks for a break, as we're standing around BS'n I looked down at one of the guys rear sprocket (426) the rear sprocket had ? 4-6 cracks between the teeth.

It wasn't the same brand of sprocket that broke on my 426, so keep an eye on those rear sprockets,,,it might "NOT" be the hubs fault.

[ April 08, 2002: Message edited by: MXOldtimer ]

[timmorg]

Thats another thing...after my first hub went I started aligning my wheel with a caliper. And I know the spacers were correct. I just had the wheel trued about 12 rides before when I replaced the stock hub and check the spokes about every third ride. The only thing that I fault my cousin with is that he was off of the gas when he dropped off the ledge so it put strain on the drive system but I would think it should still hold up to that. I'm sending in pictures to White Brothers tomorrow and they are going to forward them on to Talon to see if they should replace the hub free of charge. The rep at White Bros told me that Talon wasn't a very good company for standing behind their products so I'm not to hopeful. But thanks for your guys input. For now I'm stuck riding my friends 125 so I can't wait to actually feel some power again.

Joe

[sirthumpalot]

I would guess one of two things. First maybe your sprocket had a problem (did it break?). If the sprocket broke then it would surely take the hub with it.

If there was no sprocket problem then I'm guessing that the chain was too tight at some point. Have you measured to be sure that it was at least 1.6" at the TIGHTEST spot? When you adjust the chain you have to carefully check, spin the wheel a little bit, recheck, etc.. until you've been all the way around the chain. For whatever reason the chain will get tighter at some spots than others and you have to check the slack at the tightest spot.

One last thought. Did you use a torque wrench on the sprocket bolts? If one or two were over tightened they they could definitely fail, and after one fails then it's much more likely that your hub may fail along with any other bolts which are still attached.

I hope that this helps. What your cousin did definitely should not break a hub.

[kfrosty]

Jimmorg,

I went through the same thing about a month ago. I had put a new sprocket on about two weeks prior. (With about 3 rides on it.) Locktite, tightened down, the whole nine. In the air over a table top the hub just shreaded. This is my first 4-stroke but I've never seen anything like it. Everybody told me it had to be loose sprocket bolts but I just know it wasn't so.

Anyway, the reason for my response is I was telling a friend who works for a Yamaha dealership and he indicated Yam was really good about fixing things like that. He said he's gotten them to replace broken parts on bikes 3 or 4 years old before. (Granted they don't have to but do it as a courtesy.)

All you need to do is get the local Yamaha shop to call it in for you and they can get it replaced for you. The only problem is that with mine that had to lace it up for me, true it and everything which cost about $100. Yamaha wouldn't send the hub to me.

I would imagine Talon would probably do something as well if you indicate you were very thorough in your checks and such. Worth a shot anyway.