I want to service the White Industries T-11 hubs on that are on my Bianchi. The bearings are shot after 5yrs.
Whenever I’ve bought bearings for my Campag cranks over the years, I’ve got them from Wiggle of Sigma but they aren’t cheap and they don’t seem anything special. For the T-11 hubs I need:
Rear: two: 6902-2rs, two: 3802W (or four 6802)
Front: two 6901-2rs
They recommend Enduro but does anyone have a ‘go to’ supplier?
Where do you get your bearings from?
a compass usually. or the sun if I have no gadgets.
Have a look on here
I just use ebay & buy branded SKF or similar. Not found a cheaper way & that guarantees they are not crap.
I ordered some bearings for my winter/crosser Novatec hubs from Edge Sports yesterday. I think I’ve used them in the past & they were ok.
I’ll be interested to see what recommendations emerge from this thread.
I found this place which seems to be way cheaper for Enduro bearings.
This thread reminds me of the Two Ronnies joke
RB: There was an explosion today in Leeds at a ball bearing factory
RC: Nobody was killed but one man lost his bearings
RB: While another man…
Well I ordered enough to service my Zipp 404s and the White Ind hubs front and rear. All Enduro for £121, which seems like a lot until you see what the bike shops charge!
Orion
Orion? You must get lost a lot. You want Polaris my old son. If you are struggling to find that look for Ursa Major (Plough or Big Dipper if you’re a yank). The two stars on the end Merak and Dubhe point directly to Polaris in Ursa Minor. About 5 times the length between Merak and Dubhe.
Now you have north.
As to FatPoms question. Ive never bought any bearings for my bike. I am doing something wrong? Dont modern bikes have sealed cartridges these days?
They do, and some wheels go years without needing more than a wipe or a re-grease and others crap out quickly. The ones in my White Ind hubs have last 5yrs and been through some horrible conditions, so can’t complain.
I really like those wheels, I had them custom built when I built the Bianchi up. They are laced to HED Belgium Plus rims with Sapim Race spokes. They ride very nicely.
The Zipp ones could probably just be serviced but I’ll throw some new ones in.
Usually though, I’ll get bored with wheels before they really need a proper service. However, both bikes are rim versions, so even if I sell the Bianchi and the P3, what am I going to replace them with? Everything is out of stock, so I’ll keep 'em going.
I’m very impressed with Wych Bearings. I ordered yesterday at lunchtime and they turned up today at 3.00pm. £1.50 postage.
I don’t think there are many, if any at all bike companies or component manufacturers ever that have designed their own bearings and had them manufactured, even the likes of Shimano. This means all the bearings they use are off-the-shelf parts from somewhere designed for a multitude of purposes. The secret is then to identify them, or find someone who can, and purchase the correct size from an OEM for a better price rather than going through a chain of distributors and suppliers who all have to take their cut. You also need to be careful to get the correct spec that you want. In the case of some parts, like say a 105 BB, you might actually want to upgrade what Shimano originally used by getting better quality seals, harder or more precisely machined parts, ceramics, weight-saving etc. There are various websites identifying how to upgrade or replace some of the more common parts either for better price, performance, weight, durability or exact replacements, and no shortage of specialist bearing suppliers who have access to bearing manufacturers catalogues. People dealing only in bicycle supply are seldom going to be the cheapest, but if you don’t know what you are doing then at least they will normally get you the correct part or you will have some recourse with them. Sometimes the bearings are fitted in a way (e.g. pressed) that means unless you know what you are doing you have to buy an assembly such as BB cups with integral bearing, rather than just a bearing assembly.
A lot of it comes down to how desperate you are to either save a few £££, or get the best product characteristics for your application, rather than just follow your product-manufacturers recommendation and pay their arbitrary prices.
Most common reasons for bearing failures on bicycles are people jet-washing the grease out, or using solvent (WD-40) instead of lube. Left alone, most bearings will survive an awful lot for a very long time.
MTB racing at big festival-type events in the late 80’s/early 90’s used to be great - Shimano etc. used to send a team of mechanics who would replace a lot of your smaller parts for free. New BB & headset races, cables, jockey wheels. Chains, cassettes, rings & pads would be fitted at cost.
I challenge you to find the standard bearing for my Cannondale Super X headset:
https://www.cannondalespares.com/Cannondale-SuperX-1.5-Headset--KP454/product_detail/3-42872
Is there no number on it? If you have some callipers, measure the ID, OD width and any bevel.
Bearings with ACPs can be a bit tricky sometimes. The tapered head tube on one of my road bikes has two different ACPs, I’ve replaced them twice and sourced from different places in years past but you have to measure very accurately.
I spent quite a bit of time on it, had all the dimensions but it seems to be a one off for this bike. There are ebay companies that make copies of most headstock bearings but not this one unfortionately.
Did you look on Wych? They have a load of options. Somebody must make it for Cannondale, surely? Although having said that, I had a Ti bike once that had a 27.0mm seat tube, what a PITA that was to get a new post, Race Face were the only option and then they stopped doing it.
So going on what you have said - definitely the SuperX 2017-2019 model with KP454 headset.
Complete 1 1/8 to 1.5" headset for SuperX 2017-2019(Cannondale part number KP454)
Head Tube UPR: 1 -1/2 in, LWR: 1 -1/2 in
Stock available @ list price £44.99 + free postage (https://www.cannondalespares.com/)
Kit includes:
Lower Si to 1.5" bearing
Upper headset reducer cup
Upper headset bearing
23mm tall carbon fiber conical spacer
Three microspacers
Upper bearing wedge
Compression assembly
Actually seems surprisingly cheap for quite a comprehensive kit. The fact that everyone is selling them maybe suggests they fail a lot. I have seen complaints about rusting SuperX headset bearings - looks like original part is low spec (that is definitely proven true of other Cannondale bearings). and you could benefit from a stainless upgrade or better seals. On the other hand the originals may have just suffered from ingress of salt water or ferrous contamination, which will rust even many grades of stainless over time, or poor maintenance such as jetwashing and solvent application washing out the grease.
So if you want bearings only of the same standard as originally fitted then I would expect them to come in at £20-25 the pair for economy items, so potential savings are limited to maybe £20 over just buying a complete replacement.
As suggested, if there are markings on the originals that would make life easy. I can’t find any direct Cannondale info which shows which bearings are common across model ranges. The entire headset assembly is clearly unique as it includes the cap, bung etc. but the top and bottom race are definitely used in multiple models. In the absence of markings, measurement would provide confirmation.
Bearing measurement guide:
https://www.bearing-king.co.uk/how-to-measure-a-bearing.php
Enduro do a range of products focused on the bicycle market and get great reviews. Widely available from many suppliers (both bearings dealers and bicycle component dealers.
Their stainless items have lifetime no-corrosion guarantee. They do ceramic for some products but I don’t think there is a requirement in headsets. Stainless are typically approx. double the price of standard bearings.
I haven’t seen any clear info on the upper 1 1/8" bearing. I did see some people claiming that the lower 1.5" bearing is the B543 - 40x50x7 non-stainless the same as used in KP205 (Tapered Headset 1 1/8" - 1.5" Jekyll and RZ 120 frames) and KP119 HDL008 Headshock headsets. A whole KP119 headset is available for around £27 with 2x 1.5" bearings but these are a 90/90 deg (non-angular) so you would have to measure/check if this is what is fitted to the lower in your SuperX. In photos of the KP454 the bearings look angular to me. It was also claimed that the lower bearing is pressed into the headset (interference fit) in SuperX-2019 and to remove/replace requires an extractor/press tool (or careful use of a drift). The upper bearing was said to fit normally (slip fit).
Thanks for the long reply @TonyStark I need to sit down when I’ve more time to do it justice but from memory: theres no markings on the bearings, I had them out & they came out too easily for my liking honestly. Yeah I think the quality is low and it’s a cycle cross bike so they get jet washed a lot. Mine had been jet washed before I bought it and bearings were fine then all seized a week or so later. So clearly got some water ingress.