A new bike!

Here are the lights I bought to keep the fuzz off me...

Bell Lumina Light Set - Walmart.com

 

The pain was excruciating....

 

After riding for about 1.5 years, it's time to change the bearings. The first project is the replace the bearings on the suspension pivot. I bought some high quality SKF bearings 61902-2RS to replace the crappy Enduro 7902-2RS.

Now it is smooth!

The next replacement is the front hub bearings. Time to buy some SKF 61803-2RS.

 

Nice new bearings!

I don't ride enough, Mine are still perfect.

 

I ride a hard tail, no rear suspension

 

Although hard tail is fun, but it will struggle to catch full sus especially when going down hill even if it is just a xc bike like mine.

I rode my wife's hard tail before getting my own.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

 

Mine look something like this:

Deore front, SLX rear. SRAM Guide R brakes.
Change to shorter stem, shorter seat post.

 

Why did you change to shorter stem? Climbing stability will suffer slightly.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

 

Better maneuverability in single tracks/rocky area.

 

I have too many technical climbs here, so I need some front end stability, especially on uphill switchbacks. I have to reduce the stem height using spacers and sacrifice some comfort. I hate pushing my bike up the hill.

 

Partly why I ride a hard tail, easier on the uphills.
Among my friends, I can do the steepest short climbs, but when I some to long continous uphill climbs, I'll stop to take a break.

 

After servicing the suspension pivot bearings, on my next ride, I found out that the front hub bearings were shot too... So I went to my trusted SKF distributor and got a sets of SKF 61803-2RS.

These are press fit bearings, while they were easy to remove, pressing them back without proper tools is a completely different story!

But I still got it installed in the end using 17mm socket.

 

Not exactly the bike I'm talking about, but it's really funny!

 

I thought you would get a laugh from that.

It's from one of my favorite TV shows, Babylon 5.

 

Hmm.. Never heard of press fit bearings. So you had the tools to press them back?

 

Press fit basically means friction fit. You'll hear it in car applications as well. They call it a press fit because it's easier to use a press to fit it in. lol

 

Actually, I'm not a fan of press fit bearings. They are much harder to replace since you will most likely need special tools to remove and install. And especially for bottom brackets, press fit bearings are the hardest to replace, and they have been known to creak as not all manufacturers have the same tolerance.

I'm not sure about in US, but most parts in Malaysia do not require press to replace bearings. They usually replace the whole thing...

 

Car or bike?

Most of the time, replacing the whole thing would be cheaper.

 

For the second part, I was referring to cars. If you include workmanship, replacing the whole thing is usually cheaper.