# First bike, pretty sure I broke it. Hyper Havoc 26" FS MTB



## Kodey (Dec 7, 2015)

So I bought a Hyper Havoc 26" FS MTB. I road it around on the street and simple trails to break it in then took it out for a full day. Upon returning home after noticing some issues I've realized the following.

The rear hub wobbles when the wheel spins (there were a few multiple foot drops) and if I put any decent amount of pressure on the pedals in certain gears I get some serious slipping.

My assumptions are that I stripped a few of the rear gears and probably bent the shaft running through the wheel? This is pretty much my first MTB and was bought on impulse so I didn't expect much but is there any sense in repairing this or should I just start over? Thanks for reading!


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## 779334 (Oct 10, 2014)

Cool. Now it's time to get a real mountain bike.


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## jeffj (Jan 13, 2004)

Kodey said:


> So I bought a Hyper Havoc 26" FS MTB. I road it around on the street and simple trails to break it in then took it out for a full day. Upon returning home after noticing some issues I've realized the following.
> 
> The rear hub wobbles when the wheel spins (there were a few multiple foot drops)


The truth is that a LOT of bikes have a slight wobble if you put the bike in the stand, spin it up and then stop pedaling. Watch the cassette for a slight wobble. It can be a problem if it wobbles so much that it makes it hard to shift cleanly, but a slight wobble isn't reason to buy a new bike.



Kodey said:


> and if I put any decent amount of pressure on the pedals in certain gears I get some serious slipping.


If that wobble is severe enough, it could cause problems like this. It could also be a mis-adjusted rear derailleur. You may have bent one or more of the cogs on the cassette too.



Kodey said:


> My assumptions are that I stripped a few of the rear gears and probably bent the shaft running through the wheel? This is pretty much my first MTB and was bought on impulse so I didn't expect much but is there any sense in repairing this or should I just start over? Thanks for reading!


If you just want to casually surf the sidewalks and ride some easy trails, your department store bike won't spontaneously combust. You probably have someone that knows bikes give it a good look and figure out what the problem is. If they tell you that it needs a bunch of stuff, then hold off, and maybe get a second opinion. If you're still told it needs a bunch of parts and labor, it would probably be best to not put too much money essentially putting lipstick on a pig so to speak.

If you're serious about riding in more demanding situations, you should be doing it on a proper mountain bike to do it safely and more enjoyably. Your Hyper Havoc is actually a 'mountain bike shaped object' rather than a true mountain bike. It won't be cost effective over the long haul to keep fixing what breaks. What it may have done though is to show you that you really do enjoy mountain biking, and that you're willing to stick with it for a while, thus meriting a more substantial investment.

If it only takes a little bit to fix The Hyper Havoc to where it works, you could sell it for whatever you can get for it, and consider the experience the cost of admission to the world of proper mountain biking. There are countless others among us that got started the same way, so you're far from alone in having gone down this particular path (yes, that is confession on my part).


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## HossHuffner (Nov 8, 2015)

Some of the cassettes on the "low rung" bikes are cogs and spacers, with enough torque its possible to strip a hub of its cog holding splines. See if your hub is stripped or borrow a rear wheel from some one and compare yours to theirs.


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## mack_turtle (Jan 6, 2009)

did your bike have a sticker like this?









it would be instructive to try to fix it up so you can learn how it works, but I would not expect that bike to ever be trail-worthy. keep it around as a spare if you can get it working, or just recycle the metal. you now know the difference between a cheap crappy bike are a good bike. in my experience working in bike shops, when someone brings a bike like that to the shop brand new straight from the store, it costs about the price of the bike to get it tuned and working properly, and those adjustments don't last on components like that.


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## idividebyzero (Sep 25, 2014)

Unless you weigh 100lbs you shouldnt have jumped that bike or rode it on a trail. Those bikes are for kids and road use only. Dont spend money on fixing it, you will only get around $60 for it used, use that money to get an older but high end bike on Craigslist.


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## root (Jan 24, 2006)

If you're going to continue doing multiple foot drops abandon this bike, it simply cannot handle that. I'm pretty sure a bike in this price range has a freewheel rear hub and those are notorious for breaking axles, I broke me a number of high quality chromo rear axles in my time and I wasn't even 120lbs, but doing trials and drops. As you e discovered, bikes of that level will quickly fall apart when used for serious trail use.


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## HossHuffner (Nov 8, 2015)

You guys are so preachy about good bike, bad bike. Everyone starts somewhere, and MTB is MONEY if it's your life when your outdoors. Kodey needs to get another wheel, every other rider on this forum has 3 sets of 26er wheels in the barn or whatever, just hook him up and stop riding his butt about the bike he's thrashing.


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## mack_turtle (Jan 6, 2009)

HossHuffner;12353834. said:


> Kodey needs to get another wheel,.


then a week later he is going to need a new handlebar, then a new crankset and bottom bracket, then derailleur... it will be an unending money pit. have you have had to work on a bike like the OP's? they are an absolute nightmare. no one said he needs to spend thousands of dollars, but we all know that telling someone to fix up a dept store bike is a waste of time and money. I would love to see him enjoying riding, not getting pissed off at making a flimsy toy bike work on the trail.

if someone came to you and told you he is trying to frame a house with a plastic Fisher Price hammer and the hammer broke, you tell him to buy another plastic hammer, or tape up the broken one, or tell him to buy a proper hammer? there is nothing wrong with being "preachy" when you are being helpful and factually correct in the process.


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## White7 (Feb 9, 2015)

What Mac said


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

HossHuffner said:


> You guys are so preachy about good bike, bad bike. Everyone starts somewhere, and MTB is MONEY if it's your life when your outdoors. Kodey needs to get another wheel, every other rider on this forum has 3 sets of 26er wheels in the barn or whatever, just hook him up and stop riding his butt about the bike he's thrashing.


Yeah, reliable equipment costs money. Is it a better value to spend $100 on a cheap bike and then break it repeatedly and often and pay to fix it every time (and also pay for the medical bills for injuries incurred), or is it a better value to buy something reliable to start with, and break things less frequently?

The less expensive the bike, the less the wheels should ever leave the ground. A department store bike should have two wheels planted firmly on the ground at all times. The consequences of destroying a bike being ridden outside of its design parameters can be catastrophic. People die that way.


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## jcd46 (Jul 25, 2012)

That is why those bikes have those disclosure stickers, no one is liable but the rider, plus there are a lot of true mountain bikes at reasonable prices. Even if he went the BikesDirect route he would be much better off and safer! 

I think is about helping the OP to be safer and save $$$


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## tehllama (Jul 18, 2013)

HossHuffner said:


> You guys are so preachy about good bike, bad bike. Everyone starts somewhere, and MTB is MONEY if it's your life when your outdoors. Kodey needs to get another wheel, every other rider on this forum has 3 sets of 26er wheels in the barn or whatever, just hook him up and stop riding his butt about the bike he's thrashing.


MTB costs money. Injuries cost serious money, considerably more in one bad crash.

Find somebody who is mechanically inclined to give it a look, just keep that thing safe for pavement and light off-road riding.
It can still be an excellent bike to learn a lot of skills on, and find trails that might be a bit more pedestrian but get really good at the technique of turning, and basics of pedaling for traction, or managing weight distribution.

I hurt myself a lot, frequently and with consistent moderate severity on cheap sprawl mart bikes when I was a teenager. It simply wasn't worth it, I was never able to progress my skills or fitness trying to take a garbage bike and trying to ride it beyond its mechanical ability; only now that I've ridden high end bikes was I able to realize what ways in which the bike was not up to the task (quite a few key ways), and others where I lacked the skill or core strength to pull off some of those things. I could have very cheaply taken away one of those variables ($400 used bike) very quickly, and it would only take a couple weeks of working a job and not being hurt to make that back up.


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## root (Jan 24, 2006)

Call us preachy I f you like, but we're telling him that that bike simply will not last if he uses it as described. he could get a new wheel, possibly higher quality which will start to approach the cost of the bike already. But if he continues to do drops I can guarantee something else will quickly fail. I've seen these bikes with bent handlebars, bent/cracked cranks, broken pedals. The frame will likely give up soon. He'd be much better off spending a bit more at the outset on a decent hardtail that would hold up. And it doesn't have to be expensive.


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## TiGeo (Jul 31, 2008)

Bent r. axle stemming from the fact that most of these bikes have freewheels.vs. cassettes putting the bearings close to the hub body on the d. side. Can be easily fixed but may cost 30 bucks at the local shop. "Stripped" gears I am assuming means that the r. der. needs to be adjusted...again...easy to do or 20 bucks at the LBS. These bikes are simply not built for true offroad use.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## Kodey (Dec 7, 2015)

First I'd like to thank everybody for all of the advice and opinions. I bought this bike knowing that it wasn't going to do much especially anything off a typical trail but I have a habit of pushing things to far which was often the cause of lots of pain in the past since I've always prefered a dirt bike but as the oilfield has died down around here the public track became private requiring a membership fee which helps sponsor the local police to patrol 'illegal' off road riding at the local lake. Corruption is the spice of life around these parts.



AshevilleMtBiker said:


> Cool. Now it's time to get a real mountain bike.


This was my first thought.



jeffj said:


> If that wobble is severe enough, it could cause problems like this. It could also be a mis-adjusted rear derailleur. You may have bent one or more of the cogs on the cassette too.


I'll check the cogs here in a bit to see if they are bent and then see what books/videos I can find on adjusting the derailleur because the closest bike shop is 2 hours away and the only folks I know with bikes around here are the DUI fellas that ride around town.



mack_turtle said:


> did your bike have a sticker like this?


I barely took the time to read the name on the bike but I'll definitely be keeping it around to learn how to work on and ride around the neighborhood.



HossHuffner said:


> You guys are so preachy about good bike, bad bike. Everyone starts somewhere, and MTB is MONEY if it's your life when your outdoors. Kodey needs to get another wheel, every other rider on this forum has 3 sets of 26er wheels in the barn or whatever, just hook him up and stop riding his butt about the bike he's thrashing.


I appreciate this but I can definitely see their point in the safety aspect of it. I'm sure I'll find a wheel out at the local scrap yard though.



TiGeo said:


> Bent r. axle stemming from the fact that most of these bikes have freewheels.vs. cassettes putting the bearings close to the hub body on the d. side. Can be easily fixed but may cost 30 bucks at the local shop. "Stripped" gears I am assuming means that the r. der. needs to be adjusted...again...easy to do or 20 bucks at the LBS. These bikes are simply not built for true offroad use.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


If I don't come across another wheel then its good to know this one can atleast be fixed!

Thanks again folks!


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## root (Jan 24, 2006)

A Broken axle could also be causing the slipping gears. Bent cogs are pretty uncommon, although I have done it myself. Usually you need to jam the chain or something hard. The axle can be pretty easily replaced, any decent bike shop would have spares and can do it. That'll get you riding again, but as you realized, if you get aggressive it'll fail again. 
Grab your wheel at the tire and try moving it side to side, if it has play then the axle is likely broken.


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## DethWshBkr (Nov 25, 2010)

HossHuffner said:


> You guys are so preachy about good bike, bad bike. Everyone starts somewhere, and MTB is MONEY if it's your life when your outdoors. Kodey needs to get another wheel, every other rider on this forum has 3 sets of 26er wheels in the barn or whatever, just hook him up and stop riding his butt about the bike he's thrashing.


I know! I can't afford a Toyota Tundra with towing package so I can tow my trailer. 
I bought a Chevy Spark instead. I had a hitch welded into it, and towed my trailer with it. I was only able to get to 28 mph on the highway, and the rear wheels wobble, and I think I saw a lot of black smoke coming out of the tailpipe. It makes a bad grinding noise now too. I only have 45 miles on the odometer, so it should be under warranty at least. The dealer just keeps trying to tell me I need to buy one of these Silverados. I wish they would just fix my Spark so I can get my trailer off the highway and tow it home!

The reason people say things like this - is not necessarily about a "good bike/bad bike" it's about an APPROPRIATE AND SAFE bike.

You can buy a 10 year old used Trek Fuel in somewhat decent shape and thrash it. It was designed to go off road. Encouraging someone to use a bike for off road riding, that is not intended for off road riding will only cause equipment damage, and serious bodily injury.


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