Do you think it's worth buying a fandango bottom race for my gravel bike? The current incumbents are shagged.
Or should I just get a pair for £12.95 from FleaBay.
Just get the right size one from somewhere like kinetic bearings. eBay is the last place to buy bearings unless you are sure they are decent (i.e. from a eBay shop of a week known supplier).
I'm sure that there are a lot of bearing suppliers, but bikeparts.co.uk have a good selection of headset bearing & had exactly what I needed for my FSA Orbit MX when the old ones got notchy.
Ah cheers folks will check out Kinetics and Bikeparts. #thumbsup
I like random ebay bearings! I bought a pack of 5, 2 were rough out of the packet, 2 lasted about 15 minutes, but the last one proved absolutely indestructible and outlasted the SKF and INA I usually choose. Random quality at its finest.
Depends, does the current headset have any sort of external seal? Some of the fancy ones have a rubber lip that rests against the outer bearing race to keep the worst of the crap out.
I've had reasonable luck buying bearings from ebay sellers, just going for the ones that are "Brands", last lot I bought were from mcrbikes. I figured they have at least whittled down their suppliers to ones that don't generate too may returns for them.
Some of the fancy ones have a rubber lip that rests against the outer bearing race to keep the worst of the crap out
I've never looked - can you get solid lubricant headset bearings. They're supposedly crap-proof (or largely so) aren't they ?
<googles>
Oh, yeah, you can. 40 quid, mind
I think Enduro bearings do solid lube ones cheaper than SKF.
Anyone tried them though? I’m considering them for some pivot bearings.
I got a few of the MTRX/solid lube ones as an "experiment" 4 or 5 years ago. Put them into a couple of sets of my wheels (main wheel bearings IIRC), one of my exes rear wheels (full set of bearings) and a load in a mates bike (bottom bracket, full set in a pair of wheels).
They've been absolutely flawless. Some have 30000km on them now, still smooth and fast, notch free. No plans to change any of them.
One of the sets of wheels were bearing eaters as well. Had replaced the rears at least once a year for the few years i'd had them.
