My Trance X/RP23 top shock bush is becoming very sloppy with wear.
I'd like to put a proper bearing on there like the RWC ones:
http://www.enduroforkseals.com/id275.html
But are there any cheaper/better/closer alternatives?
never seen these before. it's interesting as i seem to get through DU bushings really quickly & it's somewhat annoying replacing them every 5 minutes. but are they not designed to fail? would adding a needle bearing such as this mean that the forces are transferred to the frame and mountings rather than a disposable piece of nylon??
They're great, apparently better than the BETD ones as they have a reasonable seal. Chris at Enduro/Real World Cycles is a good bloke to deal with as well.
I had some problems getting them mounted though, unfortunately one eyelet in my shock was slightly undersized, and it meant the bearing would not rotate freely (there is quite a tight fit when it's all together).
Friction is vastly reduced compared to the Fox 'top-hat' bushing/reducer system, whether you can actually feel this in use is another matter of course 😉
BETD do something similar and have done for about 4ish years.
Had a needle roller on the bottom mount of my Enudro '04 for about that time.
Trouble is Im not convinced they offer any advantage over the std setup. Theres very limited rotation going on there and im just about to go back to the BETD strong bush / Hula Hoop busing setup. Mainly because the needle roller bearing needs fairly regular cleaning / greasing in comparison with the bushing setup otherwise it rusts and gets rather notchy.
there's not much rotation in the bottom shock mount, but there is in the top...
So from the sounds of it, it's either BETD or Enduro/RWS then?