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Author Topic: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight  (Read 8894 times)

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Offline BadKitty

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3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« on: January 12, 2016, 07:59:28 PM »
Bikeguide, missed you guys, been about 12 years since my last post here.  Mid-school rider and I need help understanding new modern Female 3/8th's axle's, and how I they can be ridden.

Ill try to explain my self as best  I can.  30 year old "mid-school" rider and this year I plan on setting up my first new Bike in basically 15 years.  That said,  Riding for me these days is mostly cruising city streets, hopping up and over things, and I only do the occasional 180 or 360 'for the girls'.  I also ride trails when I can get out to them. I have had 14mm axles front and rear my entire bmx riding life.  I have never rode a 3/8th axle what so ever, neither male or female, except goofing around on my roomates jr. race bike. Ill get to the point; 

To this end, My new Set-up is going to be a Standard 125R on 3/8ths axles front and rear.  I will ride 1.95 tires in the back and 2.25/ Tioga Street blocks.  I am just shy of 6ft tall and weight about 175lbs.  I have never rode a female 3/8th axle rear, and I tried to browse some old Gsport posts about them to learn something, but I came away less than certain I knew what to expect and how to set the new wheels up. Further, I browsed/lurked "pinkbike" and "vital-Bmx" to gleam a little bit of information about setting up these hubs, and literally not a single one of them seemed to know even the first thing about BMX let alone any real information about this.

From what I read, 3/8th's female axle's will have either an Aluminum/Chromoly inner axle, and will have Chromoly Bolts that mate to the hub.  Also, various sources claim that a female 3/8th axle will have similar strength to a male 14mm axle comparatively speaking.  I have looked at the Profile Mini-cassette's and the Odssyey anti-gram 3/8ths rear, as my tentative choices.  Despite the "Race" nature of my future bike, I will likely ride a 25/9 gear setup for money and convenience sake. I saw profile offers an inner-chromoly axle as well as aluminum option.  Given that Rear wheels are extremely expensive, I want to make sure im not making a really stupid decision going with a 3/8th rear "race" set up to cruise streets and Ride trails. I meticulously maintain my parts and bikes, never throw or abuse them, and I dont slam the bike around ever.

Given my weight, and that I will never ride pegs, grind , do any stair bombs or anything of that nature, could I get away with 3/8th female axles in the REAR, bearing in mind I will likely hop some trash cans or rails, do the ocassional street gap maybe in to grass, wall ride or two, and some park action, along with mostly hard packed trails and generic city cruising?  Will I crush or bend these axle's in this type of riding? I know 3/8ths should generally be run only on bikes that see transitions for most of there life, but I will inevitably be on the streets, as well as some parks.

also any additional experience or knowledge on 3/8th female rear wheels is appreciated. lol dont be shy, I saw all those S&M CCR's out there!  I know us "old" guys be on that steadfast geometry.  Sry for long winded/ got a little too excited posting again.

Offline Narcoleptic Insomniac

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2016, 08:44:56 PM »
Welcome back. Pretty much any modern female axle hub with 3/8" bolts will be more than strong enough for the riding you've described and for basically any riding that doesn't involve pegs.

Be sure to post a bikecheck when you get the new bike.

Offline Patty

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2016, 10:49:45 PM »
Profiles newish 3/8 cromoly axles are golden, best set of wheels I've ever had, to include odyssey antigram and gsports. I don't run pegs, but have blown up two antigrams with 3/8s axles.
Quote from: Austin Tasseltine;3615349
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Offline weedbix

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2016, 10:58:57 PM »
The thing about 17mm/20mm axles is that they effectively lock the rear triangle together.

3/8"/14mm axles are weak enough to bow when you tighten your wheel up if the dropouts aren't parallel at your hub width.

Female 17 or 20mm hubs support female bolts so well. The bending area is only the part of the bolt outside of the inner axle. With 3/8"/14mm male hubs, the whole axle is flexing up until it yields

This is why a 17mm female axle with 3/8" bolts can often out perform a 14mm male axle

Offline BadKitty

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2016, 11:07:11 PM »
Profiles newish 3/8 cromoly axles are golden, best set of wheels I've ever had, to include odyssey antigram and gsports. I don't run pegs, but have blown up two antigrams with 3/8s axles.

pretty close to pullin the trigger on it.  Curious, by "blowing them up" did you blow the inner female axle out, or the outer male bolts?  I Think Im ok with occasionally blowing the outer male bolts out, but not so much if it happens 'all the time" or from simple things like bunny hops or flat landings.  It would be a tiresome, expensive nuisance to be smashing bolts from jumping up curbs or manualing picnic tables. 

I keep waivering on if I should just spend the money to get V brake mounts on a 250L, but  Standard direct has like a $35 flat shipping charge alone to order a frame from them, and god knows how much to do a "custom" weldd V-brake job on a 250 on top of that.  I might try to get a hold of them and see if they could work with me on v-brake mounts on a 250.  14mm wheels are all around much cheaper, and would put to bed any wheel nonsense down the line.

Disappointing how expensive and difficult it is to find what I am looking for without having to essentially pay $150 dollars for welded brake mounts.  Personally I just dont like the screw-in mounts, and if im spending $400+ on a frame FFS I want welded mounts!  Im really not a picky rider either, and it seems like there's literally a million different frames out there, but virtually NONE with Moderate geometry AND welded brake (especially v brake) mounts, without having to pay a fortune in "custom" work. 

Offline BadKitty

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #5 on: January 12, 2016, 11:09:46 PM »
The thing about 17mm/20mm axles is that they effectively lock the rear triangle together.

3/8"/14mm axles are weak enough to bow when you tighten your wheel up if the dropouts aren't parallel at your hub width.

Female 17 or 20mm hubs support female bolts so well. The bending area is only the part of the bolt outside of the inner axle. With 3/8"/14mm male hubs, the whole axle is flexing up until it yields

This is why a 17mm female axle with 3/8" bolts can often out perform a 14mm male axle

thats what i was thinking too.  Think im going go the 3/8th female route, and totally try something new.  Its the old, " a pencil is easily snapped in two.  the two smaller pieces of the same pencil once broken, are very hard to snap in two again." if that makes sense?  Definitely wanted to get a few opinions on it, given the astronomical cost of Rear wheels.

Offline Prodigal Son

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #6 on: January 12, 2016, 11:55:54 PM »
It wouldn't hurt to start a communique with Standard. They hooked me up last time I dealt with them. Especially if you're just wanting a frame they have inventory of.

Offline badlight

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2016, 08:57:51 AM »
I got about 2 years out of a Profile aluminum inner axle with a substantial amount of peg abuse before I broke the inner axle. My cult 'shemale' style axle is holding up quite well as well, and I spent a lot of time this year doing some stupid fuf-ice type shit on it. Still have never broke a 3/8ths female bolt and its been a few years.

Honestly, if youre just riding and cruising sans pegs, you shouldnt have any problem with the Profile aluminum inner axle.

Offline Patty

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2016, 09:27:11 AM »
The axle and a bearing would go at the same time with the antigrams. I sent the axle in and got it warrantied. They said it was a defect in the axle collar. It happened again with the new axle.

Just to be 100% safe, I'd get the 3/8s cromoly axles on the profiles. I just don't think aluminum is very good for axles.
Quote from: Austin Tasseltine;3615349
yeah its got to be, but the fact that you never can be sure with an opinionated christian on the internet is worrying

Offline montymitch

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2016, 09:21:42 PM »
The axle and a bearing would go at the same time with the antigrams. I sent the axle in and got it warrantied. They said it was a defect in the axle collar. It happened again with the new axle.

Just to be 100% safe, I'd get the 3/8s cromoly axles on the profiles. I just don't think aluminum is very good for axles.

I'm pretty gentle with my bike, and I've had Vandero II and a Marmoset in front; both have deformed with peg and guard use. I'm currently running a set of Antigrams without pegs and I've had zero issues.

Offline Eggit2

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2016, 12:10:09 AM »
Welcome back. Pretty much any modern female axle hub with 3/8" bolts will be more than strong enough for the riding you've described and for basically any riding that doesn't involve pegs.

Be sure to post a bikecheck when you get the new bike.
This is definitely true, but I would consider going 14mm just for future compatibility. The weight hit will be negligible and you might change your mind later and want to throw some pegs on.

Offline LowKey

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Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2016, 03:14:52 PM »
Keep in mind if you go with a 3/8th dropout frame you need to pay attention to the rear hub closely. Some of the hubs out there have a portion of the inner axle sticking out to take up the space on a 14mm dropout. Most likely if the hub collars are thread on, the axle is going to stick out and won't fit your 3/8th's dropout. A press fit collar like a profile hub will fit fine though. Don't be worried about strength, I used to ride 14mm back in the day and bend them monthly. Now axles are heat treated and with a female inner axle that is the inner and outer walls that are strengthened. Also if you were to run pegs the only thing to bend is the bolt, which runs .75 cents at the hardware store and is grade-8 (profile hub), also threading into that much stronger inner axle making a third heat treated wall.
I've been running female 3/8th's since odyssey's first cassette with the male 14mm axles that were solid, drilled and tapped to accept the same hardware bolts the profile hub used.

For an alternative on frame options look into the Credence CCR or FBM steadfast, both are traditional geometry and welded brake mounts.

http://www.sandmbikes.com/product/hardgoods/credence-c-c-r-frame/
http://www.fbmbmx.com/products/frames/steadfast-cs.php

Bikeguide.org - Bike maintenance for BMX'ers

Re: 3/8th Axle's, Hub set up and weight
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2016, 03:14:52 PM »

 

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