Video: How To Check Your Frame Bearings At Home
Frame bearings are overworked and underpaid. If you ride a full-suspension bike then chances are you have frame bearings, and if your bike is over a year old then chances are some may be a little worn. Join Christina as she goes over everything you need to know to check your frame bearings at home.
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If you don’t like something thats fine, just don’t like it and live with it. stop this ‘it must be deleted’, so the internet fits your world view.
Don´t buy bearings in bike shops, find a shop who sells only bearings and possibly bushings and similar stuff. Before you go there, check your hubs bearings as well and buy it all there. You will probably pay about a half price for all of them as for just a frame bearings in regular bikeshop.
btw: good to see the tech tips to continue, however you could include the changing as well
Dont you think that they f*ck you over when selling you a set of Alibaba grade bearings for 120 bucks?
Thats usually how it goes, same for OEMs.
I have no obligations towards my LBS neither does he have any towards me.
It's such a small gesture to support local businesses, I don't get why it's such a contentious issue
I have others best interest in mind whenever possible. I love working with local institutions. The "I help you and you help me" sort of thing, but I am drawing a line somewhere. I wont support a hustler, just because he is my neighbour.
Giving £4 to my local shop doesn't seem too bad to keep them in business, but everyone's free to vote with their wallets however they like.
And yes, of course some people have the tools and skills to do it themselves, I'm one of them.
Weird flex, but ok.
If you want to use regular "industrial" bearings on you frame that's okay, just consider they will need replacement sooner than MAX type, unless of course the MAX bearing in question is bottom quality, in that case the industrial bearing from a good brand (SKF, FAG, INA etc.) will last longer.
LBS is LBS
The the dealers / bike shops continuing the same way by claiming this is OEM parts.
I now there are better options which not increase the bike price and will make the bike last longer with a lower service rates.
The only reason the bike industry stuck with sealed ball bearings is they it sounds well on the marketing materials.
There are roller bearings and very fancy bushes the are much more suitable for the job and could be greased in place by the rider simply like on any motor car or tractor or heavy equipment.
It is time the frame builders / designers will look after the end user.
A bearing shop sells only bearings all day everyday, they work on high volume and small mark ups.
Fast-forward to 2020, and I replaced them again with single bearings from a bearing supplier. The $300+ bearings died after 80 park days. The other bearings are still going strong. So most of this is coming from some negative experience with an lbs. Btw, that shop was Different Bikes, and they bent me over the desk...
I checked my bearings, popped out the seals, cleaned and regreased them before they were worn out. Cutting out both my LBS and my LBS! Only my local grease shop gets a cut.
It was quite the embarrasment to visit a huge bearing supplier and ask for MAX bearings only to get weird looks and get told they don't carry them. Maybe things have changed and big bearing manufacturers are now making full complement bearings but last time I check not a single one of the big bearing manufacturers had single row full complement ball bearings.
Its time consuming but well worth it. Greased bearings >> dry bearings with perfect seals.
And yeah, get yourself a cheap dental pick and remove your bearing seals when they get rough. If the location allows, blast them out with some cleaner and then dry them with air/rag/etc. Re-grease with better grease. You'll get much more life out of them before having to replace them.
If your bearings are packed properly with grease (most I've had from the factory were not) then water intrusion should not be an issue, provided you aren't powerwashing the face of the bearing directly. The seal should help retain grease and, when it water gets past it (if it does), the grease in the bearing will prevent water from damaging the balls in the bearing.
The reason my bearings typically fail is due to grit, grime, and other material finding its way into the bearing past the bearing seal. Most brands use some kind of rubber seal over the face of the bearing that squeezes between the linkage to provide more protection, some (Transition...) do not and it's very evident when they don't, because bearings seize much faster.
For the grease over the face of the bearing that so often gets repeated, this makes it much worse because the grease attracts dirt and debris that sits over the face of it, grinding into the bearing. It's the opposite of what you want, you do not want that crap sitting there, you want it to fall off rather than stick to your frame and the bearing. This may be a little different if your bearings are protected properly by the frame, but if they have any exposure to the outside, the surface should be clean. I tested this theory fairly thoroughly and found the life of my bearings was shortened and there was far more material inside of them when I put grease on the face of the bearing.
I do agree with the rest though, I found a lot of bearings especially straight from the factory were not packed properly or barely had grease in them at all.
If I kept that area clean, they would last at least several weeks or months longer, but when I kept that ring on it, they were seized usually within a few weeks at most. The bearing seal just isn't good enough to keep dirt out, it's meant to keep the grease in, so keeping all that crud around the face of the bearing is just asking for it to get shoved past the seal and seize the bearing. This is also really common practice in other fields where overgreasing causes reduced bearing and component lifespan due to grease attracting dirt.
It's a different subject but the bearing design on that lower main is extremely poor, you can look down and see the face of the bearing in the gap between the swingarm and frame. There is nothing there protecting it and it is in the path of all sorts of debris. There needed to be some sort of seal or gasket on it like almost everyone else does.
Santa Cruz, Specialized, Giant...no issues with any of them, often times for years. It was only a problem with those bikes, but it gave me the chance to experiment with different ways of extending bearing life.
My pre-ride bike check:
1) squeeze each tire to make sure there’s air in them
2) squeeze each brake lever to make sure they don’t bottom out.
3) pump the fork once
4) check for the integrity and performance parameters of all my suspension bearings by pushing down on the saddle once, if the suspension goes down and comes back up then my bearings are okay.
note: my fork was overhauled yesterday as a result of Tuesday's article (though I'm waiting on parts for rear suspension)
I just use Enduro bearings because that's what my bike shop and my internet shop both carry and sell. I usually don't open them up and check the grease because I always feel like I do more harm than good, that seal never really seems to get back on there correctly and if they are dirty or compromised I've never had much luck getting them truly clean and greased. Had high hopes for those gel impregnated bearings mentioned last year but the only feedback I''ve heard on them was they didn't work out so great after all.
www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2022/05/23/outside-shifts-toward-digital-and-online-makes-staff-cuts-and-shuts-beta#.YpCdT2jMLq4
I bought a bearings press from Ali:
www.instagram.com/p/CY9Bg-tsqRi
And a bearing slide hammer made for automotive.