Has anyone any experience with the needle bearing upgrade offred by BETD?

I need a new DU bushing for my RP32 anyway and looking at the blurb, the bearing seems to do this job at the same time??

Or am I wrong ??

Mine fell to bits after 6 months winter riding. Replaced it with a TF Strong bush.

mine also fell to bits… 🙁 got hula hoops and their strong bushes now with no problems

+1 for the strong bush.

Pointless, don’t bother. No noticable difference on a BOS shock switching between needle bearings & normal bushes, other than with normal bushes I didn’t have almost immediate play in the back end.

Almost as much of a gimmick as these spring bearings doing the rounds at the moment.

I’m sure someone will be along in a minute to tell you they are the best thing ever & they could feel a 0.687% improvement in rear end suppleness whilst mincing round Peaslake though.

Seemed bizzarely popular on turners last time the question poped up.

+1 with using the strong bush and hula hoops, get the fitting tool at same time.

Mine was on a turner. Like I said, fell to bits.

Better off with a polymer eyelet bush TBH

It’s not pointless. Really immediately noticeable, much much less stiction. Small bumps go from being dulled to being completely erased. Think this depends how much bushing rotation there is on your bike though.

THe only arse ache is that you need to get one that fits properly as often the eyelets aren’t perfectly sized on the shock.

(Mine was from Real WOrld Cycles/Enduro and had decent rubber seals which I don;t think the BETD ones do).

Not sure how it could fall to bits TBH. If there’s play it means either it is the wrong size, or it was fitted badly.

I personally think it’s only worthwhile doing if you need to improve small bump performance.

LoCo – Member

Better off with a polymer eyelet bush TBH

Do they perform better than normal bushings or just last longer?

Slighlty lower ‘stiction’ and better life span, supplier quotes ‘up to 4 times as long’ as the standard eyelet bushings.
Use by the Loco BM Endurance team confirms them to last considerably longer than standard in ‘real world’ conditions. 😀

Yep – I can confirm this 🙂 I seem to batter my bushings, but the ones LoCo put on my race bike have stood up to a proper hammering. (in perspective, 15 – 18 hours a week usually).

Is it just me or does putting one on a Turner seem a bit ironic? One bike that stands out for making a jornal bearing work well instead of a rolling element bearing and then people put one of these on.

Tickles me a little.

Onzadog – Member
Is it just me or does putting one on a Turner seem a bit ironic? One bike that stands out for making a jornal bearing work well instead of a rolling element bearing and then people put one of these on.

Tickles me a little.

I run a RWC needle bearing on my 5 Spot.
It has been on for the 7 months I have owned the frame, it came with it, so I guess it would have had plenty of use when Toons owned it.
The only benefit I seem to get is as retro83 says, small bump compliance and less stiction.
The Turner does run journal bearings, but they are greased via the fitted zerks, so in theory the point of highest resistance is the shock eyelets, being a friction fit.
Having a grease packed needle bearing with less contact area than the bush can only give less resistance, so an improvement.

The only benefit I seem to get is as retro83 says, small bump compliance and less stiction.

It has been on for the 7 months I have owned the frame, it came with it

I’ve got a HL 6 Pack myself. I can see the advantage. I just find it slightly amusing that these seem to be used by Turnewr riders more than anyone else. The best exection of jornal bearings on a bike I’ve ever seen.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

The only benefit I seem to get is as retro83 says, small bump compliance and less stiction.

It has been on for the 7 months I have owned the frame, it came with it

Have I been owned by the grammar police?