Does anybody know how difficult a bearing change is on the Transition giddy-up bikes?

I’ve recently built up a Smuggler. The plan was to just ride it on the nice days and use my HT whenever the weather was crap or the trails were a mud fest. But you know how it goes, you ride it then you want to ride it some more 🙂 Also, it’s a mountain bike, it’s supposed to be ridden. But I’ve been an Orange rider for years and am used to just knocking a new set of bearings in with an allen key and a hammer in less time than it takes to drink a cup of tea.

Looks dead simples from the exploded diagram thingy. Three sizes of bearing though. They are pretty well protected anyway, mine have about 200 hours on them and they have a slight indexing as you move the swingarm without the shock but that’s it so far.

Transition sell a tool for removing and installing bearings which makes it very simple. These were designed for their ~2013 bikes so check with them to see if the same ones can be used on their newer frames.

But for what its worth, I’ve had my Bandit for 2.5 years now and put around 400 hours of riding and the bearings are still running OK. I ride in all conditions, regularly get it covered in mud and sand and often wash it with a portable pressure washer.

Great, thanks guys. I’ll just stop worrying and ride the damn thing then 🙂

It does sound as though Transition give some thought to how their customers can maintain the bike, which was part of the reason for going with them.

The Five has taught me that I’m crap at spotting when bearings need replacing though. A few times I’d cycle the suspension (after removing the shock), think it felt fine but pop the bearings out anyway (as it was such a simple job) only to find that they were as rough as hell.