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to those who downvoted me, ask roger viera
I disagree- needle bearings only work in clean environments like engineering textbooks. Haha
Absolutely. They're horrendous on MTB.
What about moto shocks with those lovely spherical bearing top eyelets being the norm?
Want to try that one day for sure on MTB.. Seems some companies have tried just not the big playas!
Think you’d have to redesign the shock entirely to fit a large enough spherical bearing…
I think RS has enough mounting options that the OEMs can figure out something that works.
What about all the needle bearing in dirt bike linkages?
🤷🏾♀️
roller bearings seem to work fine in bicycle linkages?
Not to mention they explode in a relatively small amount of time. Can't count how many I had disintegrate on my 2016 Patrol Monarch+. Bought a bunch from Real World Cycles, definitely were not worth it. Maybe different frame applications would change my opinion on them?
FWIW, The new Vivid model specific offering refers to the current Slash as (2021-2023) where most other models are 20XX+)
The same ones that blow out every few hours and are a complete bitch to clean/grease/replace?
Only time I see needle bearings that last is in the wrist pin on a 2T engine. But that is oiled by the premix and pretty clean. Also high speed lower loading than suspension bits.
Praised be jesus. Just torquing down on the eyelet wouldn't work?
Any ideas on availability? I'm just now waiting for a bearing variant SD as only standard eyelet variants are available (or press in bearing cups), but this would make it a viable solution in the standard eyelet.
Regarding needle bearings, how do you reload them? Roller bearings usually run axially preloaded to take out the slack. Long time running applications also use a soft reload (spring) to keep it constant through the lifetime and temperature range.
Regrease is pretty easy, replace isnt too bad if you have a vice. They last about as long as a 2t piston
Needle bearings are generally only used where a roller or ball bearing wouldn't fit. They are not preloaded or very lightly (usually) also generally not sold as a cartridge, so no inner race (tho hardened steel sleeves for them are sold). Early turner dhr's had needle bearings on the linkages driving the shock, and they rode on unhardend and unpolished steel... As you'd expect they did not do very well in this application. Regardless, I loved both dhr's I had, they were quite good for the time.
I'm speculating here, but perhaps needle bearings are generally more susceptible to contaminant damage because they're long. A ball bearing will often even usually push contaminant particles off to the side rather than crush it or be crushed. A needle bearings doesn't, and crush them. Also the smaller the diameter of the rolling element is the higher the surface pressure at interface.
Pretty sure lower shock linkage on dirt bikes are needle bearings. At least they were 6 years ago when I was still racing and working on my own bike.
Yes a lot of bikes use needle bearings and they see a lot higher loads and they don't work in exactly clean environment either. Needle bearing in my shock is working just as well as the day I installed it some 3years ago with one grease top up in that time frame being the only maintenance. Terrible durability for sure lol.
This is ducking stupid.
Must be frame specific then, as I weigh 155lb fully kitted, and think I blew through 3-4 needle bearings in about a year on that 2016 Patrol when I had it.
Needle bearings carry a lot of load for their size (the surface area of the race and rolling element contacting each other is high, thus the pressures are low), but there are hardly any needle bearings out there that come as a cartridge, with seals, they don't carry axial loads (deep groove ball bearings hold up surprisingly well in that regard), etc.
For specific applications they can be great. In a shock eyelet I'd give them a pass. DU bushings are way too cheap and modern bearing mounts work too well (I'm on my original bearings in my Super Deluxe after 4 and a half seasons and 450+k vertical meters of descending).
What about about Bearings like Moto’s and I think Push uses? Seems like the best solution to me. Allows for misalignment, side loading and of course axial rotation around the mounting bolt.
Spherical bearings were discussed above as well, yes they are superior to every other option in terms of performance, but they don't last too long because they are typically not sealed that well. Argument that you cannot fit them because there isn't enough space is complete bullshit, price and weight, those are real reason, 16mm OD is size used on those shock that use them, vs 15mm standard eyelet.
https://www.universalcycles.com/shopping/product_details.php?id=102336
Been around since Ohlins first partnered with Specialized and discovered the joys of shock yoke extensions (esp. the ones that Specialized used to use that literally bolted the shock to the yoke)
Can’t say I’ve seen this bike before, so I’m guessing it’s something new from fezzari? That’s nik nestoroff on the bike. New dh bike? Or long travel bike with a 40?
Lefty had needle beerings for that reason.
Any indication if the model-specific shocks available aftermarket or are these just ones that will be coming on stock builds?
Some shops are already listing the model specific shocks.
https://thelostco.com/collections/rockshox-vivid
What happened here was. it a huck to flat or something or did the new GT literally implode ? "There I was just riding along"
Interresting. +$30 for the luxury of a specific tune.
It was JRA during a practice run at Val Di Sole if I remember correctly. Granted, a world cup racer's JRA is beyond my mortal abilities. Frame was probably damaged at one point. Forgot details.
A big factor would be frame tolerances on cheaper bikes too, the minute you dont have nice alingment and that needle bearing has to take some axial load you would start to get issues.
Push's spherical bearings would be the best solution no?
The service manual has the how-to installation, might tell you something. Yay to another single use speciality tool!