Paralever bushing kit to replace the needle bearings?

[Tsiklonaut]

Worth to check it out or not?

http://rubberchickenracinggarage.com/bushings.html

Many say the original needle bearings are misused by their purpose since paralever moves very little and only the limited number of needles in the bearing get all the abuse, thus the bronze bearing seems to be like a potential "improvement" or what?

They come at relatively stiff price - 120 USD, so what do you technically minded people reckon are they worth a check or not?

 

[Hay Ewe]

Hi, Yes I have thought about them but wasnt really sure, at least not sure enough to fork out US$120 or how ever much AUS$ that would be.

I can see some merit in them but I do prefer the needle thrust bearing set up.
Unfortunatly all I can do is suggest that you try them, see how they go and report back

cheers

Hay Ewe

 

[Garry H]

An interesting idear...I would have thought that you would get more friction than the needle bearing and thats not good on suspension

But in all fairness i have done loads of miles and never had a problem with the originals

The price also seems a bit steep

I have a small workshop and could easily make them...
Maybe i will make a set up and give them a try and report back

 

[Tsiklonaut]

An interesting idear...I would have thought that you would get more friction than the needle bearing and thats not good on suspension

But in all fairness i have done loads of miles and never had a problem with the originals

The price also seems a bit steep

I have a small workshop and could easily make them...
Maybe i will make a set up and give them a try and report back

Yes, the price is a bit too steep IMO too.

I just took my paralever apart for inspection. My 1100 is at 73Kkm (45K miles) at the moment and the bearing are approx half worn and they're unevenly worn which makes me a bit curious, since I think they maybe do another 20-30K miles more so I should better replace them during this winter when I don't ride me bike and it's ripped apart, rather than rip it apart again during the next riding season to replace the bearings.

If you can make few sets I'd be very interested, maybe we play "test rabbits", this might turn out a nice solution to replace the needle bearings afterall, hoping they'd last at least 2X more than the needles do. Do you have any sources of bronze raw material with the suitable stiffness for making such detail?

 

[Garry H]

Yep i got some bronze that will do the trick
Will look into it as i have a spare 1100 swing arm kicking around...Something to do over the holidays

 

[pomm001]

An interesting idear...I would have thought that you would get more friction than the needle bearing and thats not good on suspension

But in all fairness i have done loads of miles and never had a problem with the originals

The price also seems a bit steep

I have a small workshop and could easily make them...
Maybe i will make a set up and give them a try and report back

There was a long thread on this recently
roller bearings small contact area with outer shell low friction, more importantly low stiction, so little effort needed to move from rest

Bronze bush higher metal to metal foot print, load spread over a bigger area = higher stiction can act as a 'damper' in the suspension
For 120 usd think expensive, if a mate with a lathe can do a set ar work;
then try it
how often will you change these bearings in the ownership of the bike,maybe once

 

[ciderman gs]

the pivot bearings are not for the suspension are they? i thought the whole idea was to remove the shaft reaction from the bike as in rise and fall under power/off power

 

[Hay Ewe]

The material that Rubber chicken use is not normal bronze from memory (olite?) its oil impregnated stuff to keep the lubrication there - and hence reduce the friction.....

Hay Ewe

 

[pomm001]

The material that Rubber chicken use is not normal bronze from memory (olite?) its oil impregnated stuff to keep the lubrication there - and hence reduce the friction.....

Hay Ewe

bigger contact area = more friction
it cost pennies to make a cone type solid bush instead of grinding all of thoes rollers
if it was that much of an advantage it would be factory fit