intense 5.5 bearings – replacements and removal?

stripped down the back end of my frame this morning expecting a quick 2 min job to apply fresh grease, and b”ggar me both sets of lower bearings are seized and one of the upper ones is ropey as heck.

can anyone tell me how the bottom bearings are removed, is a special tool required or does it require sending off to the uk distributors? can’t seem to find anything on the www about it.

hoping that i can remove said bearings – where’s the best place for the bearings. are they standard size? i’ve seen some on the betd site for 40quid but only $30 from enduro seals in the us.

anyone have any advice?

Had my Tazer done recently (same back end as the 5.5 iirc). There is some info over on the Intense forum on mtbr.com about removal. As I’m planning on selling my frame shortly I opted for the lbs option to do the job properly – cost me £60 for full set replacement.

From memory, they’re the same size as Hope XC hub bearings, so should be readily available from your LBS.

There’s no magic to replacement – hammer them out with Intense Frame Fixing Tools #1&2 (hammer and screwdriver), and press them in with a vice. In my experience, you’ll be doing them so regularly that it doesn’t pay to take it to a shop, they don’t seems to last long with the VPP design.

Available from CRC too.

6901 2rs and 6001 2rs if anyones interested.

screwdriver and hammer removes them easily and safely, thanks.