Name that mechanical problem

[bluegoose]

Originally Posted by mtnbiker310

Was the wheel really going in and out of true? Was a spoke thread stripped, or a spoke nipple stripped or broken? How about the rim? Was it getting thin from long-term brake rub?

I number of years ago a friend started down a jeep road when all of a sudden, POW, his front rim blew apart and wrapped one of the rim sidewalls into his fork. Stopped him immediately.

We're probably not even close, are we? Time for you to clue us in.

Alright, maybe the symptoms were a little too vague, but its all we had to go by from a quick roadside assessment. One of you more experienced guys may have been able to figure it out a bit easier than we were.

He had recently (2 months) installed a new set of ceramic bearings in the rear wheel.

When the wrench at the LBS took it apart he found that instead of being evenly spaced the ceramic bearings were all bunched up together in the casing. Occasionally they must have worked their way back into normal position, explaining why it was only intermittently out of true.

Has anyone ever had this problem? Does this make sense to someone who has taken apart some ball bearings?