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Hello all, I've decided to go it alone and purchase quality individual bearings as opposed to a kit. Before I strip my bike (as its still very rideable) and get all brutal with it, has anybody any experience/knowledge as to which bearings I need to buy?
Thanks in advance.
You could take your old bearings to the bearing shop and they'll be able to do a match
How much is the kit from S?
£40. Ouch!
Goldtec should be able to advise/sell you the correct bearings
Not sure if you'll save much going DIY
I recently had to buy two front hub bearings (Hope Pro2) and they cost £10 for the two.
Spesh charge £90 for the job don't they?
if you buy quality bearings it'll cost you more individually than buying the kit from Spesh.
there are usually 12 bearings in the 4 bar spesh system IIRC, and for good quality bearings from somewhere like city seals and bearings youll not get much cheaper than £8 or £10 per bearing. cheap bearings are still £3 to £5 each
by buying large quantities Spesh get them cheaper.
^ That's what I would do
40 for the kit sounds good in that light - didn't realise there's 12 bearings
Are they much of a job to fit?
12 bearings, Does that mean there are 2 per linkage in the horst links and seat stay links? Blimey!
To be honest, I havn't detected any play anywhere other than in the top shock bush which I took off to check and do an aircan service at the same time. It was then that I noticed that the linkage action sounded quite rough. The culprit seemed to be the main pivot on the shock linkage and turning the bearings using a finger confirmed they are very rough.
There was a little bit of latteral play at the seatstay linkage and the corresponding shock linkage when it was unbolted from the downtube but i'm not sure if this is normal.
You'll find the bearing sizes on the Spech tech site
http://www.specialized.com/gb/en/bc/SBCGlobalPages.jsp?pageName=downloads&menuItemId=7176
I'm guessing you may have a Stumpy so select FSR > 2008 > SJ FSR and the bearing sizes are in the PDF near the end. If it's not a Stumpy then just find your model and the manual on that site
Cheers fellas
i looked into it and it was cheaper for my local spesh dealer to do it for me even though my local bearing supplier is a nice chap and i buy from him whenever i can...
Two per side in horst link (4 total) two in main pivot, 4 in shock linkage so 10 rather than 12.
All except the horst link bearings are straight forward to remove. Just use a bearing press to remove and refit. The horst link bearings need a bearing pulled to remove them, as they are pressed in either side of a 'shoulder' of metal that stops you drifting them out.
I did all the other bearings no problem but ended up taking the swingarm to my PBS to have the horst link bearings taken out withrhe Spesh tool 🙁
On an enduro BTW
Thanks AP - I think that's the definitive answer. So, looks like you're snookered and have to go to a Spesh dealer for the job
I wonder if the 2010 Expert is any different?
If you can bodge a bearing puller then you maybe able to DIY it. My LBS did it as a favour but if you don't want to risk damaging the frame then it may be worth getting the shop to do it.
The spesh kit is only the bearings. The bolts and washers are a sepetate kit at £25.00.
If any of thebolt heads round out when you're dissasembling it then you'd have to wait for the bolt kit too. Worth checking if the dealer would change the bolts too.
£40 for the amount you get is a good price. But, chances are you don't need to replace all your bearings so do bear that in mind- no point in replacing good parts.