Head bearing wholesalers?

[roadracingoldfart]

Yes but stay well away from the Chinese stuff, the metallurgy has about the same composition as weetbix.

With due respect Robert , the Chinese bearings are very good quality , the Korean ones are what you may be referring to .
They are rubbish and generally just poor carbon copies of a known bearing size they copied from something they found on a shelf.
I know this as a former sales rep for an SKF agency. Even SKF use at least 3 bearing houses in China that i know of and they make a certain line not economic due to quantity in other countries like Israel , Sweden , Japan etc.

Paul.

[roadracingoldfart]

Not true. As with just about any other product good quality product does come out of China, unfortunately we Kiwi's seek out the cheapest available product and moan when it breaks!

Carver. I have been involved in Engineering for the last 30 yrs and have found Auckland Bearing Distributors to be the best importer/distributor in NZ by a comfortable margin http://www.aucklandbearings.co.nz/

If you have issues sourcing let me know, sleeving and/or machining either the bearing or housing is sometimes appropriate when considering a replacement.

So you must know the most famous "Bearing Know all Aussie " in the country well before he retired lol Sir Gregory Carr , That mans a legend in the bearing world and he helped my career in that industry go forward.

Paul.

[carver]

im after some dust seals now
standard is 40 each!

[warewolf]

Bearings and seals are dirt cheap anyway, so just ask the guy for some top quality ones. I doubt if the bearings are any more than 10 bucks each, and the seals an more than 5-6 bucks each. Thats bloody cheap as far as "motor cycle parts" go.

Try more like $30 for mid-quality ones, but still typically half the price at a dealer for the same quality.

Seriously, I can't see you quickly wrecking a steering head bearing. Use a similar bearing in car wheel bearing service, and they get a fucking hiding day and night - far far more of a thrashing than in the steering head.

Completely different applications of the same type of bearing of considerably different sizes and thus duties. The car wheel spins and is subject to varied load, primarily radial, due to the road surface. In a bike steering head, the bearings spend most of their life operating in a very narrow band of motion with primarily axial loads.

What he said.

Wheel bearings spin so distribute the load and the grease. Steering head bearings don't, so they tend to get notched.

On my road bikes, the steering bearings need replacing twice as often (or more) than wheel bearings. On dirt bikes, it varies, as the wheel bearings suffer water & mud that the steering head doesn't. It's contamination ruining or removing the grease that prematurely kills wheel bearings. And wheelies/ jumps/ sheer rough terrain that hammers the steering head bearings.

[warewolf]

im after some dust seals now
standard is 40 each!

Again, go to the bearing distributors, they have seals, bushes, circlips etc.

IIRC Auckland Bearing Distributors was set up by a motorcyclist who got fed up with the poor availability of bearings here. They are definitely good buggers and know their stuff.

[carver]

Again, go to the bearing distributors, they have seals, bushes, circlips etc.

IIRC Auckland Bearing Distributors was set up by a motorcyclist who got fed up with the poor availability of bearings here. They are definitely good buggers and know their stuff.

nah, they dont have em....going genuine now!

[warewolf]

Bugger! There are some obscure sizes used in m/c applications, which is annoying. Some you can get or approximate, others you can't.

Eg LC4 rear wheel bearings are very ordinary, $24 each for the exact same SKF ones KTM use. But the rear cush-drive bearing is a different type, double row angular contact bearing, that took quite a bit of tracking down. SKF price for the nearest match was $108!!

And the lower shock bearing is not in the bearing manufacturers catalogue at all; as in, I've got the make & model off the existing bearing, including the dimensions, and they don't list that part by number or dimensions... anywhere on the web or in the printed books locally, neither does any other brand. It has unusual dimensions and dealer price is $125 for what otherwise would be a $25 part for a common size. Probably custom-made for WP, low-volume production hence the price.

Most of the time the bearing people will have the stuff you need, but not always.

[Robert Taylor]

With due respect Robert , the Chinese bearings are very good quality , the Korean ones are what you may be referring to .
They are rubbish and generally just poor carbon copies of a known bearing size they copied from something they found on a shelf.
I know this as a former sales rep for an SKF agency. Even SKF use at least 3 bearing houses in China that i know of and they make a certain line not economic due to quantity in other countries like Israel , Sweden , Japan etc.

Paul.

Good call, irrespective its sad that there are so many deplorable quality goods on the market with many blissfully unaware buyers. You have to be incredibly vigilant.

[gatch]

Bugger! There are some obscure sizes used in m/c applications, which is annoying. Some you can get or approximate, others you can't.

Eg LC4 rear wheel bearings are very ordinary, $24 each for the exact same SKF ones KTM use. But the rear cush-drive bearing is a different type, double row angular contact bearing, that took quite a bit of tracking down. SKF price for the nearest match was $108!!

And the lower shock bearing is not in the bearing manufacturers catalogue at all; as in, I've got the make & model off the existing bearing, including the dimensions, and they don't list that part by number or dimensions... anywhere on the web or in the printed books locally, neither does any other brand. It has unusual dimensions and dealer price is $125 for what otherwise would be a $25 part for a common size. Probably custom-made for WP, low-volume production hence the price.

Most of the time the bearing people will have the stuff you need, but not always.

manufacturers obviously do their homework and use a specific bearing configuration for a reason, BUT its not ALWAYS necessary to replace them with the same, if the originals are too expensive or hard to source, you may be able to substitute a different type/size..

[warewolf]

manufacturers obviously do their homework and use a specific bearing configuration for a reason, BUT its not ALWAYS necessary to replace them with the same, if the originals are too expensive or hard to source, you may be able to substitute a different type/size..

Yep, too true. Going with the genuine part is usually safe, and you need to understand the application if you are stepping outside that.

The shock bearing can't be substituted; it is short and squat, most of that type are tall and narrow. That's the prime reason I believe it is a custom job; it is way outside the norm.

The cush drive bearing used a "B" angle, but I found an "A" readily available... or something along those lines (I remember the principle involved if not all the numbers). There was say 5 degrees difference, which is acceptable in this application. A bearing specialist commented that the B used to be the defacto standard, but it had since changed to A - which is why they were readily available. So chances are, in this application, KTM grabbed whatever was the default as the angle wasn't important.

Most of the time I've found the basic dimensions easy to match. It's the other stuff like the amount of interference fit, external radiusing, seal variants etc that is difficult to a) identify and b) match off-the-shelf.