Über Konusschlüssel

Manche Fahrrad-Spezialwerkzeuge sind Zeit- und Arbeitserleichterungen für Tätigkeiten, die man auch mit Standardwerkzeugen durchführen könnte; manche Spezialwerkzeuge sind absolz notwendig für bestimmte Tätigkeiten. Unter diesen essenziellen Werkzeugen sind Konusschlüssel. Man kann sie durch kein Standardwerkzeug ersetzen.

Konusschlüssel ähneln normalen offenen zweiseitigen Maulschlüsseln. Sind siend nur wesentlich dünner. Ein typischer qualitativ hochwertiger 14 mm Maulschlüssel (oder Engländer) ist ungefähr sieben Millimeter dick (0,28 Zoll); billige Schlüssel sind sogar noch dicker. Konusschlüssel sind jedoch etwa zwei Millimeter (0,08 Zoll) dick.

In den meisten Fällen kann ein Standardmaulschlüssel oder ein verstellbarer Rollgabelschlüssel für die Kontermutter des Konus genommen werden. Der Konus selbst kann jedoch nur mit einem Konusschlüssel eingestellt werden, weil die flachen Seiten sehr schmal sind und man nicht viel Platz hat.

Die Kontermutter eines Konus mit zwei Schlüssel anziehen

Konusschlüssel werden üblicherweise in den Größen 13/14 Millimeter, 15/16 Millimeter und 17/18 Millimeter ausgeliefert. Wenn man die Wartung von Nabenkonen selbst durchfühhren möchte, muss man mindestens einen Schlüssel in der notwendigen Größe zu hause haben. Der beste Weg, herauszufinden, ob der Konusschlüssel, den man kaufen möchte, passt, ist der Weg zum Fahrradgeschäft und vor Ort den Schlüssel ausprobieren.

Billige Werkzeuge sind niemals ein gutes Geschäft. das gilt auch insbesondere für Konusschlüssel. Wegen ihre extremen Flachheit und der Größe der Muttern, auf die sie passen, müssen Konusschlüssel aus besonders hochqualitativem Stahl gefertigt sein, damit sie die Kräfte, die im Gebrauch aufgewendet werden, aushalten. Schlechte Konusschlüssel verbiegen sich direkt bei der ersten Nutzung und werden damit nutzlos.

Campagnoloqualität

As with so many other bicycle tools and parts, Campagnolo is the standard for comparison. I have been using my Campagnolo wrenches for 12 or 13 years now, and they still fit as well as they did when they were new. I bought the Campagnolo wrenches after going through several sets of cheap French cone wrenches in just a few' months of professional use. At that time, I could find nothing else that would hold up to serious use.

In the past few years, however, quite serviceable cone wrenches have become available from American and Japanese manufacturers at reasonable prices. In general, you will get better quality tools if you buy them individually, rather than buying a pre-packaged "bicycle tool kit."

Schwinn makes particularly good cone wrenches for shop use. They are single-ended, with a comfortable plastic-coated handle. Unfortunately, since they are single ended, you need to buy ten of them to get two each of the five common sizes. (I have yet to find a need for the 18-millimeter end of my 17 x 18-millimeter wrench).

[The brand recommendations above are very out-of-date. My current favorite is the Park laser-cut (black finish) shop model.]

Park Tool cone wrench

There are times when two cone wrenches of the same size are essential -- for instance, Campagnolo Record rear hubs use a 14-millimeter wrench for both the cones and the locknuts; the locknuts have narrow flats and taper in such a way that you must use a cone wrench for the locknut as well as for the cone.

Schneller mit Zweien

Even when two identical cone wrenches are not essential, they are a great aid in adjusting the cones quickly and exactly.

If you do not have two of each needed size, to make even the smallest change in the cone adjustment, you must first loosen the locknut, then adjust the cone, then re tighten the locknut. If you get the cone adjustment just right but the locknut is not sufficiently tight, tightening the locknut will throw the cone adjustment off. Careful cone adjustment by this technique is a very time-consuming process of trial and error.

If you have two wrenches of each needed size, the fine adjustment can be done much more quickly and easily! First, get the cones in roughly correct adjustment, with the locknuts fairly tight. Now, if the cone adjustment is too tight, put a wrench on each cone and back the cones away from each other.

This will simultaneously loosen the cone adjustment and further tighten the locknuts. If the cone adjustment is a bit too loose, put a wrench on each locknut and tighten them together. This will tighten both the cone adjustment and the locknuts at the same time. This approach will enable you to make very small adjustments to the cones without loosening the locknuts.

There is a supposedly non-rotating washer between each cone and locknut, which you might think would keep this system from working, but it does not in practice, as long as you start with a reasonably good rough adjustment.

Spiel reduzieren

The correct adjustment for solid-axle hubs is to get the cones tight enough to reduce play to a minimum without causing the axle to bind when turned. You should first judge the freeness of the bearing when the cones are too loose, so that there is a little bit of play.

Pretend that you are a safecracker and that the axle is the knob of a safe. Hold the axle by a cone locknut very gently with your fingertips. Revolve the axle slowly several revolutions. Do this by turning your wrist, not by rolling the axle in your fingers. You should feel almost no resistance, and no unevenness in the rotation.

If there is roughness or unevenness with the bearings adjusted loose, it means that your bearing surfaces are damaged, your axle is bent, or there is foreign matter (dirt) in the bearings.

If it turns smoothly and without resistance with the cones loose, remember how that feels. Tighten the cones bit by bit until you feel slightly increased resistance, then back the adjustment off just enough to get rid of the resistance.

At this point, there should be no noticeable play in the axle. if you cannot eliminate almost all of the play from the axle without causing the bearings to bind, the hub needs to be cleaned and repacked, possibly with some new parts.

Some hubs with sealed cartridge bearings have double locknuts on each end. The axle generally has a flange inboard each bearing. The bearing's inner race is clamped between this flange at the inside and the inner locknut at the outside. The cartridges use radial-contact bearings: that is, the bearing balls ride in the bottom of rounded grooves in the inner and outer raceways, rather than on angled surfaces as in cup and cone bearings.

(How do they get the bearing balls in, you may ask? By placing the races eccentrically from one another, so there is a big space on one side -- introducing bearing balls only on that side, and then spacing the bearing balls evenly and snapping a retainer into place to hold them in position. )

Despite the locknuts, this kind of hub is non-adjustable. It should turn freely, and if installed in a wheel, there should be a very slight amount of play at the rim. If it binds, that is probably because the bearing balls are riding on the side of the raceway. This can occur if the cartridge is not properly seated due to dirt or burrs, or if the axle is not exactly right for the hub.

Die Achse komprimieren

If you have quick-release hubs, this is just the starting point. When the quick-release skewer is tightened, it slightly compresses the axle, making the cone adjustment tighten. If your cones are perfectly adjusted with the skewer loose, they will become too tight once the wheel is installed and the quick release is tightened.

To compensate for this, cones on quick-release hubs must be adjusted so that there is a little bit of play when they are not on the bicycle. The very final tightening is done with the quick-release skewer When the cones are properly adjusted on a quick-release wheel, there should be slight bearing play if the quick-release skewer is only partially tightened. This play should just disappear once the quick-release is fully tightened. My article on cone adjustment describes a special tool that compresses the axle, avoiding the need for trial-and-error adjustment.

Axle compression is a particular problem with some cartridge-bearing hubs, because these are non-adjustable. The better cartridge-bearing hubs have an extra-rigid large-diameter axle.

Misshandlung vermeiden

Because cone wrenches come in generally useful sizes, and are very light, it is often tempting to use them for other purposes, such as saddle adjustments and tightening axle nuts or even pedals. Resist this temptation! These tools are only for cones, and any other use constitutes abuse of a fine tool. All of these other uses require substantially more torque than is needed for cone adjustments, and these thin wrenches are not made for such heavy use. Good quality tools should last a lifetime if properly cared for.

Quelle

Dieser Artikel basiert auf dem Artikel Tool Tips Cone Wrenches von der Website Sheldon Browns. Originalautor des Artikels ist Sheldon Brown.

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