could you explain how one would set about “looking after” a swing arm pivot ? IME they’re quite inaccessible and the only service option available is replacement.

Good job you ride a hardtail!

The best/easiest method is to do it before you need to, everyone knows sealed bearings contain poor grease. The best thing to do is remove the swing arm once you get the bike, then prise the seals off the bearings. Next, you need to use some degreaser and a compressed air gun to remove all the old grease from the bearings. Once done, repack them with whale oil. You should do this after every ride really.

greasing bearings after every ride? why only the suspension bearings? why not the hubs, pedals, bottom bracket, headset too? seems odd to expect that little from suspension bearings!

Right. As others have said, Shimano hubs have cup and cone bearings which require regular maintenence. It could be that you may have been over enthusiastic with a hose and inadventantly blasted the grease out of the hubs – which might also explain the early death of the swingarm bearings too.

There may also be an issue with the swingarm alignment which might kill those bearings early, if I were you I’d ask you Spesh dealer to check this out.

You won’t get very far with a confrontational attitude. I’ve had a Spesh for a very long time and have very positive experience of their customer service. That said, I’ve let them investigate any issues and have been prepared to take it on the nose in event that my hamfistedness has contributed to a problem.

You hear that sound MrK mkII?
That was the sound of the irony wooshing over your head…

🙂 @ crazy-legs

this is what a fox guy said to my mate when he was at Crankworks. “your from the UK, you have that proper mud there, eats our part”. So claim down as it is wear and tear and when fixed give you bike a service every 3 months or so. i have a Santa Cruz bullit. now 2 and a half years old on the same bearing. it has a full service every 3months. stripped to the bearings.

everyone knows sealed bearings contain poor grease.

so it IS a warranty issue! If this were needed it should be done in the factory.

Once done, repack them with whale oil. You should do this after every ride really.

oh, it’s a joke ? Har har.

To be honest, if sealed pivot bearings made by whoever and loose bearings from shimano have both died in the same time frame, then the only common factors are your maintenance and the conditions you are subjecting them to. I’d be worried about the whole rear hub to be honest (as i’m assuming the bearings are rusty and marbled) and the headset is likely the next thing to go…

The OP did not say the bearings were loose or worn out, he said it was creaking. No need to replace the bearings, this is the famous FSR creak. Repeated bouts of mud pasting and subsequent cleaning and GT85 squirting don’t clear out all the special UK grit and the grease around the mating surfaces gets washed away. Unless the bearings are loose there is nothing wrong with them, just clean and regrease like any other moving part. Ok I don’t ride my Spesh that often but it’s always in the Peaks gritstone. I’ve had to take the back end off and regrease the surfaces once in nearly 2 years. More regular use might mean this needs doing every 6 months or so, which is reasonable IMO for a complex suspension pivot regularly swamped with cack.
Mind you, the OP’s attitude about the whole thing stinks and makes it very clear he has no idea about how to maintain a bike or even care to find out. If you effed like that to my staff in any of my shops you’d be out on your butt never to darken my door again, you obnoxious little prat.

DEar SiR

I LefT mY Bik in tHe SheD, An KNoW iT HAs gON RuSTy

Is iT a WaRanTTy IsHuE ?

KinD rEgaRDs

WrigHtYSoN

Unless the bearings are loose there is nothing wrong with them, just clean and regrease like any other moving part.

except the manufacturers (who should know) insist that this should not be done ?

Orange single pivot.

Orange single pivot.

May aswell buy a hardtail, cheaper and they work pretty much the same over bumpy ground.

WrightySon, you have been proved wrong my son 😉

Consumer is king eh robdob. You know the script, I mentioned it to you before. Which shop by the way? Funny tho how spesh have now agreed to cover the cost of all the labour, I’ve got plenty of idea when it comes to maintenance, yeah I’m guilty for the hub but as I said the swing arm bearings just don’t seem fit for purpose. Must be something in my telephone manner to have sorted it, the guy who I spoke to is a top man and not once did I raise my voice or swear. I save that for the **** on here!

I save that for the **** on here!

of which you are king…

Funny tho how spesh have now agreed to cover the cost of all the labour

That’s called ‘goodwill’ – I’m surprised you don’t feel guilty about being such a tit about it in the first place now.

You hear that sound MrK mkII?
That was the sound of the irony wooshing over your head…

yeah, but it gives great lift! 🙂

Rigid SS is the way to go. 😀

That’s why I wont buy another Spesh FS – My stumpies went after 1.5 years and my shock bushing every 6 months – Orange warranty their pivot bearings for Five years! If they are not warrantied then you have to ask why ?

Stay clear of Muc-off!

Which shop? Until 18 months ago I was a manager in retail, lastly in Homebase. Escorted plenty of people off the premises for abusive behaviour/swearing at staff. My last week there I had to call the police to remove someone (sofa was taking a while to arrive, tried to compensate and offered refunds but they threatened me with verbal and physical abuse). It seems no matter how much you try to help people and be polite and courteous they still want it out with you to get what they “think” they deserve, no matter how wrong they might be.
Pity the bike shop you got your “faulty” bike from. 😉

i wish this was a troll but sadly i think its real 😕

Its like people who expect mech hangers ot be covered under warranty. Even after you calmly and clearly explain to them why they are there and that they are designed to fail they dont believe you. Whats even funnier is when they start to say they are a engineer and can see the part isn’t built correctly because of x y z reasons.

We ride stuff. It wears out. Sometimes it breaks. Folk don’t really expect bearings to be warranteed do they? Not given the horrid environments we put them through?

Shimano M575 hubs are cack. It might have done the OP a favour and now it’s time for some decent wheels.

My 2010 Stumpy is 12 months old:

– forks fixed/serviced under warranty (stopped working)
– new main shock under warranty (blew through whatever when dropping off in pro-pedal)
– new rear hub bearings (wear and tear)
– half a dozen new spokes (wear and tear)
– replacement drive train (wear and tear)
– new Hope Hoop rear wheel (wear and tear)
– new break pads +++ (wear and tear)
– just going in for new headset today…

…try not to use jet washers and do not use Muc Off.

Gets ridden 2 – 3 times a week.

Reasonable??

Paul

PS I wish it was as easy to replace knackered parts of my body!!

I’ll try and avoid all the abuse thats being thrown about here (although i might be a bit sarcastic myself)as this thread does seem to be getting out of hand no thanks of course to the OP(please don’t take offense to this but you do come across as a bit rough). I’m a Mechanical Technician and before that a marine engineer (ooooh cool as f&ck, i know) and i can verify that most people before me are right, bearings are counted as just wear and tear on a bike. That said if its only creaking then its not buggered. Does your seatpost creak sometimes? what do you do? take it out, give it a clean, clean the inside of the seat tube and stick it back in with fresh grease and hey presto problem solved. Same thing with the bearings just pop the seals off and wash out with GT85 or something like it. Allow the bearings to dry thoroughly and then push some fresh grease in whilst you rotate the bearing to ensure you get as much in as possible. Now its totally different if you remove the shock and find that the bearings are rough to move, the same way you do with your crank when you remove the chain to check the bb bearings, if this is the case then you need new bearings. A bike is like a car and needs regular servicing. Remember where your riding your bike…….up and down a mountain in wind rain and mud at great speed!

Here’s a big tip for you though, don’t leave it until something breaks before taking it to get fixed. This is called breakdown maintenance and is baaaad! What you want to do is preventative maintenance where you maintain things (by this i mean bearings on your hubs, headset, suspension etc)on the bike not necessarily after everytime you ride it but every 2-3 months but of course this also depends on how much you ride the thing. If your bike has been ridden 20 miles offroad every second day for 11 months then service times should vary 😀 There are articles on this forum and others that will tell you exactly how to maintain your bike if you’re unsure.

Hope i don’t sound to patronising but its late for me as i’m on nightshift and stuck on an oil rig 140 miles off of Dundee for 3 weeks

Fair enough they arn’t covered and if they arn’t then you can’t grumble really but I still stand by the fact that if a company do not warranty bearings at all (even 1 year!!!) you do have to ask the question why?

Foxy: Bearings are not covered by warranty as u could be using the bike once every month to ride 5 miles or every day to ride 40 miles. This kind of thing is common practice in the automotive industry so why not in the bicycle industry?

But again just to mention there’s nothing wrong with his bearings if they’re just creaking, they just need lubed like your chain does every so often

The big problem with using cartridge bearings in pivots is that they only move through a minute range of motion, so water gets in and they seize in no time. Using bushes gets around this, but they can have more stiction, and as 99% of people never do any maintenance you can really trash the frame.

This kind of thing is common practice in the automotive industry so why not in the bicycle industry?

As mentioned previously, wheel bearings on bikes are designed to be very light and free rolling, if you wanted heavy bearings with terrible drag, which last longer, you could use car wheel bearings, or buy Chris King hubs. Using car analogies for virtually anything on a bike just doesn’t work!

Here’s a big tip for you though, don’t leave it until something breaks before taking it to get fixed.

Ideally you would replace the component the day before it breaks for minimum faff factor. With cartridge bearings I replace them as soon as the play is above some illdefined amount where I feel the wear will start to rapidly increase, as it’s important to get them out before the races collapse

But again just to mention there’s nothing wrong with his bearings if they’re just creaking, they just need lubed like your chain does every so often

except the bearing manufacturers insist you should never do this and that the parts are sealed and self lubricating…

and as 99% of people never do any maintenance you can really trash the frame

since the bearings are an interference fit, and there is no movement relative to the frame, how can it be trashed ? Surely one of the points of cartridge bearings is that all the wear takes place within them and replacing them returns to as-new function ?

Unless the warranty says ‘lifetime bearings’ then your out of luck. A year can mean alot of riding/use especially over winter that we’ve just had.

Some UK locations have horrific sand-like grit that wears kit as well.

Do Marin actually warranty them?

Trek don’t, they just replace them for free (or 1p as said previously!), it’s different. They’re not saying they won’t wear out, and you’re liable for labour, they’ll just give you the parts free.

And in this instance, a call to Specialized has resulted in the same outcome, them meeting the cost of labour. It’s not an admission of fault, it’s called GOODWILL and surprisingly, in spite of the best efforts of some customers, it does still exist in the bike industry.

Specialized are fantastic to deal with – if anything this thread has highlighted this fact above the “my bearings failed, the bike isn’t fit for purpose” rant.

since the bearings are an interference fit, and there is no movement relative to the frame, how can it be trashed ? Surely one of the points of cartridge bearings is that all the wear takes place within them and replacing them returns to as-new function ?

Right up to the point when the bearing siezes solid and rotates in the seat. Now that will make a mess….

As far as I see it. The better you are with warranty/what you offer the more people will expect from you. I bet all manufacturers receive idiot-calls and ambulance-chasers for issues/rider-faults etc on a fairly regular basis.

Wrightysons 4rse, after a good flamming:

😉

Foxy: Bearings are not covered by warranty as u could be using the bike once every month to ride 5 miles or every day to ride 40 miles. This kind of thing is common practice in the automotive industry so why not in the bicycle industry?

Not on the Spesh but they are covered on other brands are they not – that was my point!!

Group hug anyone? 😆

Orange Pivot bearings: 5 Years – link
Marin Pivot Bearings: Lifetime – Link
Trek Pivot bearings: Lifetime for original owner Link
Whyte Pivot Bearings: Lifetime for original owner Link

And – Huuuuuuug 😉

ATB sales bikes do indeed have bombproof warranties IME, which is why i’d always put one of their products towards the top of my shopping list even if my “brand new” mount vision came with a crack already in the frame!! On hindsight I kicked off a bit about that one!!

Not fashionable or “niche” (whatever that is) but they make sound bikes which they sort quickly for you when things do go wrong.

However i would see the above issues as fair wear and tear.

There was an idiot who wrote to octobers what MTB complaining that Evans and Trek wouldnt replace a broken spoke under warranty after 3 months, and demanded a new wheel after, and the went on to complain they fitted a “different spec” inner tube in the new wheel.

I think we all need to apply a bit of common sense here. If we are going to throw our own bikes down rocky hillsides and ride through all manner of gloop and mud then some things will break/get worn out. Obviously if frames fail then it’s reasonable to discuss a replacement but for items like rims/spokes/hubs/bottom brackets and pivot bearings these are consumables like tyres and disc/pads on your car. MTBing is an expensive hobby and things do wear out. If you want less wear and tear get a road bike and become a roadie as i never have to replace anything on my road bike!!