On my ride home tonight I got about a mile in when something felt really wierd. At first I thought it might be some problem with the chain or cassette. So I stopped and looked all around the driveline. Aside from a minor issue that I've known about and been living with for a while I couldn't see anything wrong. Rode a little ways forward and felt the same thing while coasting. Felt like it was coming from the front wheel. Took it off and checked the spokes. All were tight. Then I looked at the hub. I could see BB's at the end of the hub.
Not good.
Called SWMBO. She couldn't come and get me as she was in the middle of some plumbing work and making strawberry jam. Tried the pastor's wife (only have her number, not his), but no answer. So I rode the remaining 8 miles to my truck.
Very slowly. Felt like it was going to seize up on me the whole time. It got pretty spooky on the downhill stretches even though I tried to keep the speed really low. Made it to the truck though.
Anyway, I am obviously not riding again until that gets fixed. Which brings me to my question. Can the bearing in the hub be replaced? If not would I be better to get a whole new wheel, or just replace the hub (and therefore also have to re-spoke the wheel)?
The wheel is a 16" (I have a short-wheel base recumbent with a 16" front wheel and a 26" rear wheel) so I'm having a hard time finding a replacement wheel. There's just not that many out there it seems - that or my Google-fu is weak - unless they're meant for kids bikes and I'd need something skinnier and more durable than that.
I've also been looking at replacing the hub, but I'm not sure how they measure the spacing on them. Plus I'm leary of re-spoking. Seems like a lot of work that would be easy to screw up. Or am I off base there?