I’ve just replaced the rear articulation bushes on my Lapierre Zesty, and have a question about the ‘fit’:

The original plastic bushings (4 off) were quite difficult to get out, but the new ones fit right in and can happily rotate – almost as if they’re too small in diameter.
One the metal articulation is inserted it’s a tighter fit, but the rotation interface is between the plastic bush and the frame. That said, I think the rotations that occur are likely to be between the pin and the metal collar.

Just pondering things as they aren’t quite the same as those I took off the bike, and wonder if I should bin these and get some others?

The process I followed is described here:
https://sites.google.com/site/rtbmtb/home/rear-bushings-spicy

Yeah, i found the same a couple of years back, even though i used bushings supplied by Hotlines / LP. I ended up using a hard epoxy to bond the bushes into the frame to ensure they didn’t rotate, and then i slightly linished the pin down by a few thou to ensure it wasn’t tight in the new bush (i put the pins in a drill chuck and used a bit of wet ‘n dry paper to take a smidge off the pins till they felt nice in the bushes)

Thanks for that info maxtorque – out of interest, how would you get then back out if they needed servicing again?

I think I’ll consider using thread lock or similar as a first option, and just listen for the creaking to start up again.

When the bushes are worn, you can just use a sharp pair of side cutters / snips to cut them, collapse them, and pull them out.

(On my carbon 714 also use epoxy to rebuild the sides of the chain stays where the top hat bit of the top hat bushes wears into the carbon)

cheers – I’ve a carbon frame too, but I’d not looked at that aspect of wear… will check that out too when I next get chance to do some spannering