I know this has probably been done to death on here in the past, but I would appreciate a bit of advice from the STW hive-mind on this one.

On the advice of someone on here years ago – I fitted the pivot bearings on my Maestro Giant thingy – using bearing seating compound.

It turns out this may not have been such a good idea – as they appear welded solid into the frame now.

I’ve pressed out one of the bearings, but it has collapsed and left the outer stainless steel bearing race/face (?) welded to the frame. I fear the others will probably be like this too..

I’ve tried tapping the race/face thing really hard from behind with a hammer and screw driver. No joy.

I’ve tried gently dremelling the thing in a few places, but after about an hour of that I have got to the point where I’m worried I might easily go past the bearing race/face and into the alu frame. I’m not best at tasks with this kind of meticulous finesse anyway. Didn’t seem anywhere near shifting it either.

I don’t want to go down the blow-torch, welding heating route – as it is a carbon frame and I don’t think it would appreciate it all that much.

I feel my two last lines of resort are

1) A good LBS in Oxfordshire, who has experience of dealing with this sort of thing. (Which one?)

2) A previous thread on this topic mentioned something about taking the frame to a ‘machine shop’ – whatever that is? Probably to have some bloke in a flat cap and oily overalls do some sort of old skool magic with a lathe and a bottle of white liquid stuff – do these sorts of places actually exist?

Anyway – so perhaps you have some better ideas? 😀

(Gonna be out of internet contact for a good while now – but will appreciate the replies when I can see them again).

Bearings = LBS.

The one part of bike spannering I won’t touch.

I’m guessing you used loctite or similar?

Search my old threads as I put up a post about using that to seat the bearings in my Marin Quad (as Marin say you should) but was worried about ever getting them out when they need replacing!

Well, that moment is not here yet but the thread the up has some posts about how people have got their bearings out having loctited them in…

If you have indeed loctited them in, heat does indeed seem to be the key if they put up a fight.

There all are many different loctites, some have a far higher melting point than others. I had to use loctite 638 on my bearings…. One of the strongest ones and requiring the most heat to remove… So not looking forward to bearing replacement day! Lol

Anyway…. Find my old thread. People have used hair dryers on bearings etc but how well that works will depend upon the loctite used.

Obviously with carbon, you have to be very careful! Firstly clarify if you did indeed use a loctite and see what other suggestions are posted here tomorrow.

As for the stuck/broken bearing. Tough call. I’d definitely wait and see what people suggest. A local industrial/engineering place might be able to help but might not be familiar with the delicacy of bikes or carbon!

Good luck with whatever method you use and I’ll be keeping an eye on the thread for my future reference too!

Did you use a properly sized bearing puller?

LBS and possibly leave them to it 😉 Not always good to watch.

My first port of call would probably be a Giant dealer, mostly as they would have done some before, might have the tricks and should have the right sized tools.

Machine shop I’d go with some things but probably not with Carbon unless they know what they are doing with it.

What is the diameter of the race?

I had this exact problem myself and it was solved very easily with a star nut and a threaded bolt tapped in behind the stuck race and then hit in the opposite direction. Works brilliantly on all Santa Cruz single pivot bikes apparently, not sure what size the bearing is on the Giant though.

Hope you get it sorted

PS agree wholeheartedly with speaking to a Giant dealer, you won’t be the first person this has happened to and they may well know a few cunning solutions

How far from Newbury are you have sorted this problem quite a few times contact me at Banjo cycles and ask for Dave

A kettle of boiling water may well provide the heat needed to soften the Loctite.

Thanks guys.. I used something similar to Loctite, yes. It’s called ‘stud and bearing’ says: 15 mins cure time, high torque strength, colour: green

I suspect that puts me in the Loctite 638 category.. 🙁

The pair of bearings needling doing are the tiny 16mm top pivot ones – hence why they’ve probably got so stuck.

I might have another go with a kettle to hand, but otherwise – Banjo cycles – looks like I’ll give you a call Dave – cheers!

any decent LBS used to dealing with FS bikes should have no problem getting a damage bearing out using bearing pullers, even for a broken bearing

any Giant dealer should have the Maestro service kit which contains a wide range of pulling tools, that’s it in the timber box

Stud lock will be hard to break!
Personally I just wipe a little grease around the recess for the bearings to prevent corrosion.

Plumbers freezy spray

http://www.screwfix.com/p/pipe-freezing-kit-220ml/13369?cm_sp=Search-_-SearchRec-_-Area1&_requestid=61055#_=p

Great – cheers guys..! Pro workshop sounds like the answer.. I have some hope I might be able to ride my beloved carbon framed trance again sometime soon.. 🙂

Big thanks to Dave at Banjo Cycles, Newbury for eventually sorting this for me. I was beginning to believe the frame was probably toast, but he was apparently able to sort the whole problem out in about ten minutes no problem! The words ‘heat’ and ‘slide hammer’ were used.

I can get out and ride my bike again! 😀

Internal Bearing extractor tool. Grips the back of the race then knock it out. Or if possible put the pivot in boiling water. I’ve had success on both fronts