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Best way to get a seized rear thru axle out?

Had the axle out last week while cleaning the bike. I went to pull the axle today to clean after a dirty ride and it won't budge with a standard hex wrench. I stopped messing with it for the night and decided I should start with picking up some penetrating oil tomorrow.

Should I then tap on the wrench w/ a mallet a bunch? Or apply steady force with a big ratchet for leverage? Impact driver? For the sake of being able to remove the axle I want to avoid trashing or shearing the bolt head while I'm trying to get it out.

It's a new Trek with the ABP pivot & UDH, both are new to me...With the axle in place the threads aren't obvious as they are on other bikes in the quiver, but I think that the 6mm hex head I see inside of the axle drive side (and inside the 8mm udh) is just the other side of the axle?

I think I'll need another helper to hold the UDH bolt (counter clockwise) to keep it from spinning with the axle?

If all else fails a trip to the LBS.

First time I've had a thru axle seize up. And yes I grease the axle and it isn't cross threaded. Guessing dirt got in the threads or something dumb. I'll be more vigilant in cleaning and greasing once I get this sorted. Haven't had this happen before and have been using thru axles for probably 15 years.

Thanks.

Ok, so back to my shifting woes. Made it through the race this weekend and its a combination of this frame design/routing not working well with housing/cables and RD pivots being sticky.

Is there some sort of high-end bougee housing with a tougher/slicker inside material? I have never had to change cable/house 4-5 times per year. Crazy.

Before racing yesterday I put some wet lube on the RD pivots and what an improvement.

The good news is that the bike/suspension overall was fantastic and handled the Silver Mtn gnar with ease. That brand new Zeb is fucking awesome.

Seriously not trolling, but that's one of the nice things about AXS. Never worry about cables, housing, and barrel tension again. Obviously there are some other things, like remembering to charge batteries, and keeping an eye on the b-tension bolt to make sure it doesn't back out, but my 2 sets have been a lot more headache free than any wired derailleur.

Supposedly GX Transmission is going to launch any day now. I'd guess GX AXS will be available super cheap then. Can run a GX RD/shifter with your Shimano cassette/chain/chainring for a SRAMano setup.

My hei hei had so much housing it needed a tandem cable and I was never that happy with how it shifted, even when everything was new. I think my first impression was "huh the 11s gx stuff shifted better." Finally put on axs and yeah that fixed it.

I waited for awhile hoping the price would go down with the release of the transmission stuff but it didn't seem to be happening. Got a good deal on a 10-50 x01 cassette though.

Nicer cables and housings do exist though. You could try the shimano polymer coated cable instead of the bulk box stuff. Even wiping the cable clean before installing can help.

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Originally Posted by Whiteroom_Guardian

. That brand new Zeb is fucking awesome.

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that funny cuz the interenet hotshots on tgr are saying its a pos

I got no complaints with my zeb really

Wheelset upgrade question: I'm eyeing a set of Giant CXR 1 carbon wheels for my Giant Revolt Advanced 1. Said wheels have a hub for shimano/Sram 10/11 speed but I have 12 speed SRAM AXS drivetrain. Can I adapt the freehub to SRAM 12 speed?

Currently installed hub/free
Attachment 462343

Quote:

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Originally Posted by XXX-er

that funny cuz the interenet hotshots on tgr are saying its a pos

I got no complaints with my zeb really

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See the last few pages. This Zeb was fully worked on by Diaz before being ridden.

Yesterday in line for the last stage I was talking with a guy who had the identical fork. Also brand new. Was noticeable difference in the feel between our forks just standing there bouncing the front end. He said his felt harsh on track, rebound slow when fully open, etc. Bone stock. No work done to it etc. I told him to go get the bushings checked out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Whiteroom_Guardian

See the last few pages. This Zeb was fully worked on by Diaz before being ridden.

Yesterday in line for the last stage I was talking with a guy who had the identical fork. Also brand new. Was noticeable difference in the feel between our forks just standing there bouncing the front end. He said his felt harsh on track, rebound slow when fully open, etc. Bone stock. No work done to it etc. I told him to go get the bushings checked out.

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Mine is a 2021 that was serviced last winter, maybe ZEB is a bit on the harsher side but I kind of like a lot of mid travel support compared to all them forks over the years that were thru all the travel just sitting on the bike

At 165lb I should be running about 55lbs but I knocked ZEB down to about 40 mostly open and I still don't use all the travel, was suprised

I forget who was on about ZEB being a shitty product

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skialpy

Wheelset upgrade question: I'm eyeing a set of Giant CXR 1 carbon wheels for my Giant Revolt Advanced 1. Said wheels have a hub for shimano/Sram 10/11 speed but I have 12 speed SRAM AXS drivetrain. Can I adapt the freehub to SRAM 12 speed?

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Best option is probably go to a giant dealer, have them look up the wheel, and see if there's an XDR freehub and endcap available for it and then have them order one. Which, yeah there probably is.

Google seems to indicate the current cxr1 uses a dt350 hub so if that's the case for those then it would be even easier. Pulling the freehub out and seeing if there are ratchets in there instead of pawls would answer that really quickly.

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/cxr-1

I’m somewhat Hayes Dominion A4 curious… my fav brake is the Magura MT7 and currently have the magura trails on my Tallboy but as it’s my only FS bike I want something with a little more bite. Who has rode both the Magura and the Hayes? I can get pro deal on the Magura but I really like the construction and the reviewed “ lever feel” of the Hayes.

Thoughts?? Anyone have a Hayes pro deal they wanna share?


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jamal

My hei hei had so much housing it needed a tandem cable and I was never that happy with how it shifted, even when everything was new. I think my first impression was "huh the 11s gx stuff shifted better." Finally put on axs and yeah that fixed it.
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Nicer cables and housings do exist though. You could try the shimano polymer coated cable instead of the bulk box stuff. Even wiping the cable clean before installing can help.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Whiteroom_Guardian

Ok, so back to my shifting woes. Made it through the race this weekend and its a combination of this frame design/routing not working well with housing/cables and RD pivots being sticky.

Is there some sort of high-end bougee housing with a tougher/slicker inside material? I have never had to change cable/house 4-5 times per year. Crazy.

Before racing yesterday I put some wet lube on the RD pivots and what an improvement.
.......

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Second the polymer coated cable. I've been using them on all the bikes with internal full housing routing and they straight-up work. Over the past decade, I've used the slickest Shimano cables available for rear shifting and have not been disappointed.

I use one on my Hei Hei CR and that bikes shifts great, even with the extra-long housing and all the curves. The cables seems to get slicker/better with age. Worth a try vs. switching to AXS.

WRG, maybe make sure you aren't over tightening the cable cover and pinching the housing there? My dropper was acting funny and I figured out that the cable was a bit pinched where it comes out below the seat tube.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sandbox

I’m somewhat Hayes Dominion A4 curious… my fav brake is the Magura MT7 and currently have the magura trails on my Tallboy but as it’s my only FS bike I want something with a little more bite. Who has rode both the Magura and the Hayes? I can get pro deal on the Magura but I really like the construction and the reviewed “ lever feel” of the Hayes.

Thoughts?? Anyone have a Hayes pro deal they wanna share?


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I've owned MT7s and currently on Dominions. The lever feel for the Dominion is MUCH lighter. Bite on the MT7 felt like it came on a bit faster. Another big pro to the Dominions is less pad rub issues that the MT7s are prone to.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sandbox

I’m somewhat Hayes Dominion A4 curious… my fav brake is the Magura MT7 and currently have the magura trails on my Tallboy but as it’s my only FS bike I want something with a little more bite. Who has rode both the Magura and the Hayes? I can get pro deal on the Magura but I really like the construction and the reviewed “ lever feel” of the Hayes.

Thoughts?? Anyone have a Hayes pro deal they wanna share?


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

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I have the mt7 HC3's on my trail bike and just put a4's on my big bike. 200mm rotors on both (well, 203's on the a4's). So I have a season on the mt7's and a handful of rides on the a4's.

Overall power is good on both. A4's win in the power department, but not by as much of a margin as I expected (although I haven't experimented with pad compounds yet - I have some metallics that I need to swap in. ). Mt7's have better modulation. A4's have a lighter lever pull and a firmer contact point. A4's also have generally beefier construction (and are heavier). Mt7's have more lever adjustments, and subjectively, I slightly prefer the shape of the mt7 levers. The a4 caliper is nice (2 bleed ports, and the little set screws on the mounting bolts are great). The mt7 and it's 4 brake pads is also fussy to keep from rubbing.

I'm pretty happy with both of them. I can't say I strongly prefer one over the other. The bigger the bike and the more I'm concerned about outright power, the more I'm inclined towards the a4's. Smaller bikes where I care a bit more about modulation, I'd probably go mt7's.

All good info. Any of you guys tried bleeding between the 2?? I find magura to be a real pita.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by skialpy

Wheelset upgrade question: I'm eyeing a set of Giant CXR 1 carbon wheels for my Giant Revolt Advanced 1. Said wheels have a hub for shimano/Sram 10/11 speed but I have 12 speed SRAM AXS drivetrain. Can I adapt the freehub to SRAM 12 speed?

Currently installed hub/free
Attachment 462343

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I think that's a formula hub (FH-536 driver)

You probably need this freehub body: https://cannondaleexperts.com/produc...31414139093129 but they make a few variants so I can't say for sure. Either go through a shop or order from somewhere with a return policy if you can't verify the exact fitment.

You could also use the NX cassette that fits on an 11speed freehub body...but it only goes down to 11t and weighs a lot more than a GX cassette.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sandbox

All good info. Any of you guys tried bleeding between the 2?? I find magura to be a real pita.


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I haven't had to bleed my Maguras yet - they came on the bike. Although that's on my soon-to-do list.

Bled the a4's when I installed them and shortened the hoses. Used my sram bleed kit. It was quick and easy - no big deal. Only noteworthy aspect is that the caliper bleed ports are on the back, which means spill over into the pad area when removing the syringe is harder to avoid. Just means I wouldn't bleed them with the pads in (as opposed to codes, where I usually don't bother pulling the pads when I bleed them because drips are easy to keep away from the pads).

don't you wana bleed with the padz out and bleed blocks in the caliper to give the proper piston spacing then spray everything down with alcohol before putting the padz back in ?

otherwise besides possibly contaminating the padz if the old padz were at all worn when you did the bleed there isnt enough room when you wana instal new padz so its necessary to bleed again

which i have done but only once

^^^ to do a proper full bleed, yeah. But I usually don't bother, just because it only takes like 2 minutes to do a quick bleed on srams.

Magura’s are my brake of choice. Bleeding them is not hard in theory, same methodology as anything else. But for whatever reason it’s a flip of a coin whether you get a good bleed…

- Make sure you have Magura rotors, they are thicker. It matters.
- The best spot to keep your OEM Magura pads is in the trash, get some metallic pads.
- Be careful with the bleed port screw. It’s made of playdough.
- Once you think you’ve pushed the bubbles out in both forward and back rotated lever, do it again ten times because you probably haven’t.
- Light a little royal blood on fire on the shop floor and let it burn to scare of the brake bleed gremlins…


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^^^ To add: I use the new thicker SRAM rotors with my MT7s, and they work great. Better, actually, as I've had bad luck in the past with Magura rotors eventually developing a high-pitched squeal, and there's no such thing with the SRAM rotors so far.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nickwm21

Once you think you’ve pushed the bubbles out in both forward and back rotated lever, do it again ten times because you probably haven’t.

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i think this ^^ is the key to getting a good bleed on any bike brake and i question if people really understand what they are trying to accomplish

my last bleed on some guides I shook the fuck out of the bottle for 5 min to release all the bubbles from suspension in the fluid cuz why leave them in there ?

it worked good

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snowaddict91

WRG, maybe make sure you aren't over tightening the cable cover and pinching the housing there? My dropper was acting funny and I figured out that the cable was a bit pinched where it comes out below the seat tube.

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I have loosened the cover since so it is possible I did pinch it there. I'm going to go find some of the good polymer housing and see if that helps.

So i have been thinking of adding an enduro full squish bike to the mix. Looking at a 29r that would also be capable of running 27.5” plus wheel/tire combo. My lbs has Salsa and i have been happy with my buzzsaw so leaning toward that but what other makes and or models should i look at?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Whiteroom_Guardian

Ok, so back to my shifting woes. Made it through the race this weekend and its a combination of this frame design/routing not working well with housing/cables and RD pivots being sticky.

Is there some sort of high-end bougee housing with a tougher/slicker inside material? I have never had to change cable/house 4-5 times per year. Crazy.

Before racing yesterday I put some wet lube on the RD pivots and what an improvement.

The good news is that the bike/suspension overall was fantastic and handled the Silver Mtn gnar with ease. That brand new Zeb is fucking awesome.

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Attachment 462383
Aka white lithium