Master bearings seizing after no use

[Timwheel]

Hello guys,

 

So something happens to me when I don't use the master for like a week:

It seems that when left untouched for a week or so, the wheel kinda "seizes" and needs a bit of force to rotate. After that it goes as freely as ever. I'm not sure what is going on but it happened this morning and I notice that with a little force I can make the wheel (on its kickstand) move a very teeny tiny bit between two positions without force. To go above that necessitates to force it a bit. Once it's done it moves freely. I'm not sure what is the reason but it sounds to me to be due to that time I went into pedal height water. The bearings were fine as I saw after inspection and regreasing (this happened before regreasing and also happens after) , I hope the motor is properly sealed and isn't rusting itself into dust. With all the heat, I would say that the motor, if not properly sealed, would have dislodged any water ingress. Did you notice something like that ? I didn't notice it before but I used it more regularly too... As I said, no strange noise after that and the bearings feel smooth after that.

I have a few ideas: we are currently having a lot of temperature differences currently (20°C from one day to the next). I packed the bearings really good with lithium grease that was quite thick and maybe it is hard enough at low temperature to create this (that wouldn't explain why it happened before though). Also, it might be due to current muddy Paris, a lot of construction is going on currently and the road is kinda awful, so some mud might get stuck and dry near the bearings area.

What is strange is that once unseized, it works it doesn't make any noise, no clicking, no hard points and it runs smoothly with the inertia of the wheel if launched by hand. So I'm worried and not worried at the same time, since the first time it happened was months ago and the wheel has performed flawlessly until now.

Any advice or similar experience ? Thank you very much

Edited April 15 by Timwheel

[DavidB]

Some of the teardowns over the past years by Ecodrift have been more than a little alarming in the amount of rust between the stator and the magnets..even on new wheels.

It sounds a bit like brakes sticking on cars that have been left standing a while (tho' usually months/years) from rust. This is just a guess.

[alcatraz]

I'm guessing a corroded bearing. But I've never owned a hollow motor wheel.

Either that or too thick/too much grease. It hardens at low temp.

Maybe mixing two greases changed the property like melting point.

Edited April 16 by alcatraz

[Timwheel]

I checked the bearings like 3 weeks ago and they looked fine. Seems they are getting smoother through use maybe the grease was not still completely spreaded round the bearings, they made even less noise today than last time I used the wheel and the wheel is really easy to turn. 

I won't use it until next thursday after today's 45km round trip, I'll see how it goes but it might have been something totally benign.

Edited April 16 by Timwheel