Seeing as have the one mtb which is my full suspension it gets used for all my riding & throughout winter.

I generally try and keep it well maintained but I was thinking the other day is there anything I should be doing to keep the pivots in good nick? I guess a wet lube would attract dirt & the like but how about silicon spray? Or is nothing the best bet?

Its a Specialized Camber btw, so quite a few pivots.

Open them up clean the gunk out the bearings and regrease? I don’t, I just changed them with alarming regularity.

I was wondering if there was some non-intrusive maintenance that could be carried out to prolong em?

A bump for the Tuesday crowd

Not in my experience.
Pop the seals off and fill with marine grease before refitting is the best solution I’ve found.
Either that or buy an Orange Five and just change ’em regularly as they only cost pennies.

Fit some one way nipples, like on the Santa Cruz bikes, i just attach the grease gun squeeze and all the crap and old grease comes out the sides, wipe clean and repeat in 3 months time.

I’ve a sad passion for bearings. Even when they are cheap to replace I find myself spending hours removing them, cleaning out all the old grease and grit and packing up with nice shiny RG2.
Its red too, so must make it faster!

bearings is one of the reasons i wont buy a spesh fs again, actually the lower shock bush was the worst.

least pain is to ignore them daily/weekly and plan to replace the full set every 3 (winter) to 6 (summer) months

popping the seals from the new bearings and packing with something waterproof can prolong their life, but so can buying a HT.

Hmm, what are other people’s experiences? I only have a hardtail, but whenever I consider going full sus this issue bugs me, particularly as you have to pay a lot to get a decent single pivot frame…

Mine are that the bearings need done very, very rarely but that does depend on the bike- how well shielded they are, how good quality and how big the bearings are. The most exposed ones in my hemlock get done about once a year but it gets ridden a lot, and in horrible conditions so it’s no hardship.

Interesting, it sounds like a lot of variables/uncertainty to take into account. I can see that it would be worth paying for a decent frame that has been developed well. Not sure my budget would ever stretch to that mind!

When you fit new bearings – before you install them remove the rubber seal and pack it full of grease. New bearings only come with a small amount in as they are designed to run at 1000s of RPM. Your pivots and headset don’t even run at 1 RPM so pack em full. This will help to stop water getting in and extend the life.

Also don’t jet wash – just bike cleaner, sponge and hosepipe (other opinions are available)

To be fair to my bearings they are holding up okay and dont need replacing (yet) 8)

I just wondered what the best course of maintaining them was (if any), whether that be grease, teflon lube, silicon spray etc etc.

I’m pretty fastidious when it comes to washing so never jet wash and keep the garden hose away too.

Fit some one way nipples, like on the Santa Cruz bikes

Can you actually do this? I dont fancy googling one way nipples at work… 😉

here’s some real world advise from a professional bike mechanic:

-don’t jetwash your bike; garden hose at most, and go easy on degreaser like Muc-Off

-don’t assume the ‘stock’ bearings are good quality; many bike/frame manufacturers have taken the easy route to increased profits by changing quality bearings to cheap bearings

-you can easily increase the service life of your stock bearings by withdrawing the pivot axles to clear the bearing race, rotating the inner race 90 degrees before pushing the pivot axles back through

-before you push the axles back through, ‘pop’ the outer shield using a sharp point like a scalpel blade (so you don’t damage the shield), pack a small amount of quality waterproof bearing grease into the bearing. Take an electric or cordless drill with nothing in the chuck, push the chuck into the bearing’s inner race and spin that bearing so the grease is properly distributed throughout the bearing. Apply more grease if necessary, and repeat the process

-Carefully refit the outer shield, and push the axles back through, loctite on the retaining bolt and use a torque wrench so the assembly is not overtightened

If the bearing is completely shot, use a commercial bearing puller to remove and invest in good quality aftermarket bearings (i.e. NSK, GMB, etc.) rather than the cheap chinese bearings now fitted stock to many bike frames