My MetaPower OEM Thru Axle - WRONG LENGTH!

JimBo

E*POWAH Elite
Subscriber
Jan 3, 2019
219
364
Western MA, USA
The OEM rear thru axle on my 2018 MetaPower RaceFox was 180mm in overall length. I always wondered about the extra thread remaining on the derailleur side (pic#1 below), but trusted that Commencal put the right length axle in.

About 2200 miles in (and well past Commencal's warranty period), the pawls in my "ebike specific" e13 rear hub became extremely loud - they were pretty loud from day 1, but at this point you could hear the racket a half mile away. Removing the rear wheel from the bike proved very difficult, and when I finally got it off, the rear hub had sheered.

This was beyond my repair skill level, so I brought it into my favorite shop. They suggested replacing it with a DT Swiss "ratcheting" hub that could withstand the extra torque better, but that meant a much larger cash layout than I wanted to pay. They also pointed out that the rim was not worth of re-use as many of the spokes had caused cracks (pic #3 below).

Then I remembered a thread here about how e13 has an unusual 5 year warranty on all its compnentry, so I contacted them as I was about 4 years in. They sent me a new hub and rim that they claimed is much more robust, bless them. I can't dispute that as I have under 500 miles with them - so far, so good. All I had to pay was the wheel building labor, but when I picked up the bike, the shop guys said that the rear thru axle should be flush on the derailleur side, per pic #2 below.

I bought a 188mm-long axle that fit perfectly, leaving no visible threads. I have to wonder if the shorter OEM axle caused a gradual deterioration of the original hub via a slight wobble or some such - my shop guys had never seen a hub sheer like that (pic#4) It also left severe scoring on the axle (las pic below).

Has anyone else ever seen this, whether on a Commencal or any other brands' bikes?

1713102047315.png

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Spiff

Active member
Feb 27, 2019
450
265
Earth
The 180mm AXLE is not good, the thread should be longer like in the 188mm one.

Also the original axle has a “bottleneck design flaw” that I already suffered in my bike and I was lucky my bike and myself survived the crash without further damages nor broken bones. My DT Swiss rear axle cracked in the “bottleneck” close to the thread while I was climbing a narrow trail, the reason is because the tension and fatigue of theaxle accumulates in this bottleneck until it breaks. Since then I avoid axles with this bottleneck design.

As a consequence, If the bike axle breaks, then the hub axle (where cassette is mounted) has to support all the tension in the rear wheel, my hub was a DT Swiss with aluminum axle and it did not break immediately, but two years later I was replacing the cassette and when removing it, the hub axle broke in two parts. Luckily, my LBS had this spare part in their parts bin and I replaced it with no issue.

Original DT Swiss Axle with bottleneck design and broken hub axle:

Eje 1.jpg Eje 2.jpg Axle Cassette.jpg Axle DT 350 Roto.jpg
 

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