Stripping down my whole bike soon, had it a year and a bit, so figured might as well go the full length and change the pivot bearings. £15.00 from Orange so that’s easy enough, been sent the spec document on how to do it… and now I’m starting to doubt myself.

Those who have done it before, Is there a good chance I’m going to totally mess this up?

if im always unsure i go on youtube and watch it being done on there, its helped me alot going on youtube to find things out, but if ur still unsure then its the lbs 🙂

The Alpine and Five have the same bearing servicing so this might help?

Its fine – just use a rubber hammer and cloth on the frame welds and dont over tighten the cap bolts or the clamp bolts. And get some copperslip.

Hmmm ok, I think I may give it a go… Lets hope I dont learn the hard way 🙂

you can give me a mail if you need to 🙂

Do they actually need it? Bearings in Oranges tend to last years. Maybe remove the shock and manually test the bearings first to see if they’re rough or loose? Supposed to be a doddle and cost peanuts if you do go for it.

Mine lasted 3 years and my mates lasted 2 – depends on how much muddy riding you do I guess?

But as above I agree does it need it just after 1 year?

Yeah if they work leave them. Thats why you buy a single pivot, so you dont have to change bearings annually. If you enjoyed changing bearings then surely you wouldnt buy a single pivot?

I got 5 years hard riding out of my prophet before the hammer was needed

Different Orange frames run different bearings, the alpine 160 runs SKF so they should be fine.

You could always pop of the seals and jam them full off grease. Also you could remove the rear shock and see how the bearings feel, try to move the rear end from side to side with the shock off!

Good luck with the servicing, K.

The Alpine is different to a five, it has a through axle that you need to knock out to change the bearings similar to a 224.

agree with above – take shock out and see how they feel. the lever of the swingarm is such that even a pretty stiff bearing will still feel fine. I recently replaced mine after 3 yrs – felt fine, but when i had the bearings out I couldn’t turn by hand. Also, if changing, keep a close eye on the swingarm alignment when you are tightening it all back up. I found mine (5) needed to be offset by an extra mill or so towards the driveside to get the shock dropping in correctly…. I suspect it had always been like this and I just hadn’t noticed – I actually checked the frame alignment out with the roll of string round headtube and dropouts to check all was in order, which it it..

Ok, officially gone off the idea 😀

I was just replacing them for the sake of it really as I will have the bike in pieces, but the bearings and headsets are just 2 parts of bikes I havent ever needed to go near.

I suppose I’ll give it a try without the shock, it’s side to side movement I’m looking for?

May as well purchase them, I imagine they dont have a sell by date and if there is movement in the swingarm at least I wont have to wait another 4 days or so for them to be delivered.

Thanks for all the responses by the way.

I suppose I’ll give it a try without the shock, it’s side to side movement I’m looking for?

basically, yes. bike in stand, take wheels off, shock out, they move the swingarm and see if there is play in it. If not refit all and forget 😀

(in fact, you only need to take the back end of the shock out of the rear mount)

iainc – Cool! Will do this 😀

Thanks!

My bad – I thought it was the same as the Five but obviously the Alpine/224 evo does not have pinch bolts unlike previous models – similar but with a through axle – 😳 Sorry for the miss info 🙁 Need new brain – doh