I bought a 45650b complete bike back in January. I opted for a complete build as my previous bike had been nicked and I just wanted to get a decent bike and get back riding ASAP.

The build is mostly SRAM – not something I would normally choose, but I thought it would be OK. Four months down the line and I have had to replace both rear wheel bearings and the freehub driver bearings. After a rough and tumble ride around Hebden/Todmorden yesterday the front bearings also need replacing. They were sounding rough, but I have used Hope bearings up to the point they sounded like a pepper mill and they never deteriorated to the point of making the front wheel rattly.

So my question is are these bearings just shit – or am I the exception to the rule? On other threads where I have been asking about bearing etc, I have seen a few other people say their SRAM wheel bearing were also rubbish.

Opinions, please.

Sorry mate they’re just shit.

Just for a bit of counter balance, I have had a 45650b for 18 months with SRAM X9 hubs and I can’t notice any deterioration. Not even looked at the hubs. I don’t do massive of miles but ride every week in all conditions.

Sounds like you have had a crap experience though so I sympathise. Maybe I’m lucky.

Do loads miles on SRAM roam 60s. Two years still rolling along fine. I power hose too.

Your still in warranty period, return to shop. If it’s second time as for refund or new wheels. You have your statutory rights as the buyer.

I had three spokes break. Returned to SRAM for full rebuild under warranty

Generally manufacturers won’t warranty bearings because wear is dependent on so many variables. Might be worth a try though

A mixed bag, then. I wonder if I just got a Friday afternoon build when the bloke at the factory wanted to knock off early and cut down on some time by not putting any grease in the bearings.

I’m not arsey enough to go down the warranty route for a few bearings – I’ve already ordered some more and will knock them in when I get them – it was more with a view to future (i.e. have I saddled myself with products that need the bearings replacing every fortnight?)

I guess if I had a bit more time I could shop around for better versions of the same bearing sizes, but I’m pretty sure SRAM have played a clever game and at least one of the rear wheel bearings is a bespoke size. 🙄

Rear are standard sizes, the front is SRAM’s own size!

‘Enduro bearings’ are available for the front 23327 bearings
ceramic
standard
Correct me if I’m wrong on this, I did get the sizes from the Sram catalogue.

Not just you…they are utter bobbins…and Sram aren’t a huge help fixing them either. Bearing dimensions are wrong on the Sram handbook so measure them before ordering new ones.

rears are easy to get – but the sram numbers are wrong. fronts are SRAM only. PITA

The bearing in my front wheel on the non drive side only lasted about 250 miles before the wheel developed play. I spent an age trying to source new bearings and after asking Wych Bearings, they replied to say they were expecting a delivery from America in the next few days. Once they’d received them, they sent me the following links.

http://www.wychbearings.co.uk/MR-23327-LLB-Enduro.html

http://www.wychbearings.co.uk/CO-MR-23327-LLB-Zero_Ceramic.html

I bought the bearing in the top link (just because it was cheaper) and it fits perfectly. I don’t know if there would be a benefit of paying extra for the ceramic bearing??

Also, just for reference, I only replaced the bearing on the non drive side because the drive side bearing seemed fine.

cheers, bookmarked!