Spherical Bearings

[joe0718]

When do you guys change your front end spherical bearings? They never feel really tight. Do you do it by time for preventive maintenance or do you wait till they get real loose?

[jay-r]

I don't have as much experience with the spherical bearings as most people. We only ran the stock front end for 8 local races. But, what I have seen is that the spherical bearings develop some play very quickly, but it doesn't seem to get much worse until they are worn out. Ours always had a little loosness to them. The knuckles that have the grease fittings seem to help. I greased ours after every washing.

[heathmxracing]

Just keep an eye on them and once they start to get a little play in them change them out. Lots of factors deternmine how they wear (dirt, water, type of terrain, etc..) so there is no rule that would work the same for everyone. I've also noticed that once the spindles that hold the bearing get a little play in them then the bearings wear out much quicker.

[TeamNeilson]

We get about a season on ours. They get sloppy, and that seems to be par for the course. After a full season, there is about 2-3 mm of wiggle. I've never seen it worse than that, but you definitely should be greasing them every single time they ride them.
I've tried all sorts of greases and lubes over the years and find that the SuperLube silicone grease works just as good as anything i've used or been recommended to date.

I don't find any manufacturer of bearings better than any other, from the best of the best (at $60+ / bearing) to the average (at $11 / bearing).. They all seem to wear about the same..

I found the stock ones to be average, and work just fine. No sense blowing $250 on bearings that aren't going to give you anything better than you already have, that money can be better spent elsewhere.