New Greaseless Bearing Design Could Keep You Rolling Further

Apparently this is a good thing…

…except that grease provides another function in keeping water away from bearings & bearing surfaces…so bearings will die more quickly without grease.

I’m not saying it can’t possibly work, these things are counterintuitive. But it sounds like the sort of thing you can have work in a lab, but dies instantly in use, surely any wear will make it useless? And then, as you say, lose all the other functions of grease- water proofing, dirt screening/collection etc.

I propose MAGNABALLS. Magnetise the bearings, but reverse the polarity of every second bearing so they repel each other.

Even with grease added I’d guess they would still be more free running than a standard bearing, either that or they could add some good sealing, but again this would add to the free running ness (not a word 😉 )

MAGNABALLS

These would need to be made of unobtaium obviously 😉

or,

…except that grease provides another function of keeping water trapped in with bearings & bearing surfaces…so bearings will die more quickly with grease.

Coil hub (would require power) as found in turbocor refrigeration compressors (oil less). The shaft “floats”.
http://www.turbocor.com/productinformation.php
😆

qwerty – Member

or,

…except that grease provides another function of keeping water trapped in with bearings & bearing surfaces…so bearings will die more quickly with grease.

So seals are bad and grease is bad? 🙄

Shame the demo wasn’t done with a load applied.

Might work in some applications but I don’t see them being much use on a bike. It’s always contamination that kills my bearings.

under load the notches will cause them to self destruct in record time

On the other hand I think these might have a use… http://www.skf.com/uk/products/bearings-units-housings/engineered-products/bearings-with-solid-oil/index.html
We use these at work and they’ve been surprisingly good (so far).
Having said that I ride a Turner so don’t have a problem… 🙂

I personally think it looks awesome, and if not perfect, a definite step in the right direction!