The bearings in my Bontrager Maverick front hub are on their way out. £20 each plus postage for the Bonty ones, but as they are a standard size, I will probably look to get my own.
Will there be much real world difference between these:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400041644211
and these?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400051205212
I only ride once a week, and the current bearings have lasted about 4 years? Happy to spend the extra if it will make any real difference, but suspect the factory fit ones are the cheapest of the cheap!?
I once got "cheapo" bearings fro my hope hub, rather than name brand. I htink it was £8 for 10, rather than £12 a pair. The bearing lasted about 6 weeks before collapsing. Had to buy a new axle as the inner race was stuck on, and a new freehub as the outer race was stuck in there. I normally expect 18 months upwards from a set of name brand bearings
your call
It can be pretty hard to know exactly what you're getting sadly, even a good name brand is no guarantee of quality as they make bearings for different purposes- for mtb use the seal's very important but that's not always the case in other applications. And likewise not all no-names are rubbish.
I was googling around for some bearings the same for my rovals, discovered that there's quite a lot of choice, it's a common size. Personally I've never met an SKF bearing I didn't like, they do good stuff. Enduro sell this size as well but I'm not overly impressed with them, their "MAX" range are just full complement bearings which isn't a very good idea, but are sold as an upgrade. They do a caged version but who knows what the quality's like. Quite often an expensive brand name bearing is just a repackaged cheapy.
hughjayteens
Sorry I can't be of much help at the mo, but I am in a similar situation. My Maverick front hub bearings are going south very quickly (after probably only 25 rides!), and I will need to replace them very soon (speaking of which, is it an easy job?)... Was wondering whether it's worth buying expensive ones, or just several cheap ones and expect to replace them often?
Oh, and from what I've heard, though it may not be totally correct, most bearings come with naff all grease in them, so it's worth popping the seals and filling them with a decent grease...
I'd just go for the SKF bearings - I've always had good results with them
"Oh, and from what I've heard, though it may not be totally correct, most bearings come with naff all grease in them, so it's worth popping the seals and filling them with a decent grease... "
There's some truth to that... 6805 2rs's are an old motorbike standard so a lot are built for that, which generally means that they come half packed- but mtbs want better ingress protection so more grease is good.
I emailed Maverick and they recommend Enduro in their literature but SKF via email - also advised packing some extra grease in before fitting.
SKF ordered!
Cheers
Chris
These have quite a good selection, and have quite a good knowledge on bike bearings
www.onlinebearings.co.uk/mountain-bike-bearings-c-411.html
I've got spare pair of SKF Mav bearings - £20 posted.