Replacing frame bearings – an easy job?

The bearings in my Azonic Sabre seem gone now, I’ve got a spare set to fit but not sure on the best way to proceed. LBS quotes around £60 to do the job but is this a job that can be done at home without specialist tools, the frame is a horst linke design and all bearings are different sizes so I don’t really with to invest in bearing presses.

Any advice much appreciated,
David

I’d say it’s really not worth the effort unless you have bearing pulls/presses, or alternatively a decent selection of sockets and a bench vice.

I’ve had to get a dremel on stuck bearings before, if they’ve not been replaced in a while you might need big kahuna’s to do the job.

Fairly easy depending on the frame design. A socket set, big screwdriver, mallet, blocks of wood and WD40 should get the old ones out. Some will need a hefty wack!

Try to use a vice to put the new ones in, if not take your time with the mallet. Clean and grease before installing new bearings and only hit the outer race.

Some frames are proper pain, youll probbaly need a load of different sockets / vice / threaded bar to bodge. £60 seems a good price.

You could bodge the bearings out with combinations of sockets and washers and all that, but then one of them is bound to disintegrate somewhere and leave an outer race lodged in place with no easy access to the back of it, so you then spend ages trying to get that out without damaging your frame, then when it comes to press them back in one will go in slightly off square and you’ll have a nightmare trying to sort it out…

Or you could hand your LBS 60 quid and sit back and have a brew while they do all the swearing.

The bearings on my Rize were glued in place with Loctite 638 and were easy to remove using mrs.rocket’s best hairdryer. Replacing them was simply a matter of smearing them in 638 and pushing them back in (by hand)

It was still a faff though – the actual bearing bit was easy but taking the suspension apart was a PITA I would give someone £60 to do it again.

I did an RM ets-x at home with just soem threaded bar and some nuts/washsers (and a hammer for the ones that didn’t want to play nicely).

Some frames need blind bearing pullers to get them out as they can’t be accessed from the other side, thats when it gets expensive and fiddly.

As above, some are easy, some are hard. E.g. did my socom in the carpark at inners once in about 40 mins, and had a norco I couldn’t shift one bearing from so it went to the shop.

Can be a very easy job, I’ve done quite a few but…

Some frames need blind bearing pullers to get them out as they can’t be accessed from the other side, thats when it gets expensive and fiddly.

+1 to this, specialized (horst link) always seem to fair badly going from posts on here. It’s not impossible to do though… at worst try yourself then give up and ask the LBS to do it?

my kona coiler was really hard work to get the main pivots bearing out of the frame. About half an hour of serious bashing with my big persuader. Really thought i was going to do serious damage to the frame but was ok in the end, worked up a good sweat by the end. Sealed up the seat tube with silicon above the bearings when i had them out, they had rusted from the inside from water get down the seat post.

Thanks for the responses everyone, it’s an 8 year old frame so given its complexity and a lack of specific tools I’d probably be best off letting the pros have a go.