Rear Wheel Hub Bearing heat

Dear Fellow Gearheads,
My second build is a 66cc Hyper Cruiser with 46 miles on the odo. I installed a high quality rim brake on the front to assist the coaster brakes. After noticing that the rear hub was warm to the touch, I also noticed that rotating the rear wheel with the clutch disengaged caused the pedals to rotate. I knew that this meant that the rear wheel cone bearings were a tad tight. I removed the wheel from both chains and loosened the bearings until there was a little felt play. I then retightened them until the pedal sprocket started catching again and then loosened a quarter turn before reinstalling the wheel and applying torque to the outer retaining nut. Now rotating the rear wheel with the clutch disengaged does not rotate the pedals via the chain. However, the rear hub is still warm to the touch. After 15 minutes or so, the hub cooled back to ambient temperature. I am still breaking in the motor, did not exceed 15mph and traveled about 1-2 miles. All of the bearings were cleaned and repacked with Park grease by the local bike shop before the motor was installed. When properly adjusted, do these rear hubs heat up at all? I realize that cone bearings are not the best design, and that these cruiser bikes are pretty inexpensive. Thank you in advance for any adjustment info:)-Gearhead222
My experience, the bearing cone nut should just be finger tight, then maybe a 1/8th of a turn with a wrench to firm it up. 1/4 turn after finger tight and seated is too much. No play in and out, or side to side motion. I'd take the axle out and check for proper grease in there. Forget what the bike shop did, just me.
 
My experience, the bearing cone nut should just be finger tight, then maybe a 1/8th of a turn with a wrench to firm it up. 1/4 turn after finger tight and seated is too much. No play in and out, or side to side motion. I'd take the axle out and check for proper grease in there. Forget what the bike shop did, just me.
Exactly what I wanted to say.
Carefully work one side at a time. To start, tighten both sides finger tight, check for smooth rotation. Tighten one side until you can feel the bearings roll around, back off 1/8 turn or less. Check for smooth rotation. Do the same to the other side. After a few tries you should have it smooth with no play and no binding.
The final adjustments are less than 1/16 of a turn, just a flat or two of the bolt.
 
Dear Fellow Motorheads-Only 1/4" of a turn CCW will take the rear wheel hub from snug to loose on the axle. I marked the captured cone /locking nut assembly to ensure that I knew my starting point. I'd forgotten that my 49cc had conventional shoe caliper brakes on the back and front, which required using only using them to stop and not the installed coaster brake. My Hyper cruiser doesn't have the proper gussetting on the rear frame crosstube to mount a caliper brake, so I must use my coaster brake and front Tektra caliper brake. Pretty sure that's what's causing the heat. We all know that coaster brakes really aren't designed to effectively stop a bike going above normal bike pedal speeds and I am pretty sure that I've found the culprit. In 10 minutes or so, the rear hub cools down. Grease is not liquifying and there are no strange sounds or movements coming from the rear wheel. I will keep an eye on this and keep you all posted, as the bike has few miles on the odo-Gearhead437
 
Dear Fellow Motorheads-Only 1/4" of a turn CCW will take the rear wheel hub from snug to loose on the axle. I marked the captured cone /locking nut assembly to ensure that I knew my starting point. I'd forgotten that my 49cc had conventional shoe caliper brakes on the back and front, which required using only using them to stop and not the installed coaster brake. My Hyper cruiser doesn't have the proper gussetting on the rear frame crosstube to mount a caliper brake, so I must use my coaster brake and front Tektra caliper brake. Pretty sure that's what's causing the heat. We all know that coaster brakes really aren't designed to effectively stop a bike going above normal bike pedal speeds and I am pretty sure that I've found the culprit. In 10 minutes or so, the rear hub cools down. Grease is not liquifying and there are no strange sounds or movements coming from the rear wheel. I will keep an eye on this and keep you all posted, as the bike has few miles on the odo-Gearhead437

Update-I rotated the rear wheel and braked her several times at rest with the coaster brakes and guess what? Rear hub heat. Not sure if there's an easy way to gussett the other side of the rear fender tubing to mount another set of caliper brakes-Gearhead437
 
Update-I rotated the rear wheel and braked her several times at rest with the coaster brakes and guess what? Rear hub heat. Not sure if there's an easy way to gussett the other side of the rear fender tubing to mount another set of caliper brakes-Gearhead437
I seem to remember addressing this issue once before in the beginning of this thread.

I wish adjustment info would actually be of any help to you but from everything I have either experienced myself or seen others go through once the bike is motorised, the rear coaster brake and hub is doomed to failure because it was never designed to go 3 to 4 times the pedal speed of around 10 MPH it was originally designed for.

That is one of many reasons why I went to mag wheels with sealed bearings and with disk brakes on my Hyper beach cruiser as I only do street riding in my old age now, the Hyper frames are great but the wheels are total brick and mortar store-bought crap for any motorised bike use whatsoever.
 
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