After tracing some play to the linkage bearings on a 2015 stumpy evo I took the linkage off to check the bearing codes and found they were 6802V-RS.

I haven’t encountered a V in a bearing code before, any idea what that stands for? Also it seems a little weird to have one side of the bearing open, is there any reason why I couldn’t buy a pair of standard 6802-2RS bearings as replacements?

From http://sibela.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/NSK-Bearing-Designation-Systems.pdf page 25 8)

V- Bearing with non-contact seals on one side, example: 6208V

Just go foe 6802 2RS (2 rubber seals) as it’ll be better sealed

The reason a bearing has one side open is they are used in frames with grease ports and when you pump fresh grease in, it gets into the bearing. If it was sealed it wouldn’t go anywhere. Simple really. And as for just using normal 2RS instead of Max, the Max are better with loads and the 2RS are for spinning. So use Max in frames and 2RS in wheels. Hope that helps.