Wheel bearing set options... Mikes, TC Bros, eBay...

[bpeckm]

Am going to be putting in new wheel bearings all around (removing old so that hubs can be powdercoated) and in looking around, find a great range of prices. If I go to Mikes, the total set of 2 bearings and 2 seals is $39. Same thing from TC Bros is $27, and on eBay as low as $16 for the "same" kit.... And the rear wheel set is much the same.

The bike started out as a non-running '80 Special II, and we are going for the tracker/dirt road bomber look, for back roads of Vermont and New England.

Is there really that much difference in quality? Anybody have any experience on which ones NOT to use?

Looking for advice, suggestions, opinions....'s all ok and I listen well...!

 

[XSLeo]

They all porbably come from the same factory in China. Most will be unless you know they came from Japan or the US.
Leo

 

[grepper]

From what I've read, there's nothing special about motorcycle wheel bearings. Sure they should be high quality, but you can get them all over. Off the internet or your local industrial supply company.
For example, on an xs650 the front wheel bearings are 6303-2RS. This translates to 17mm inner diameter, 47mm outer, and 14mm thick. 2RS means Sealed Ball Bearings, meaning they have a plastic seal to hold in lubricants and keep out dust.

 

[lidirtrider]

I used All Balls Racing for all of the bearings and seals on my White Trash Bobber project. Everything worked like a charm. I had one issue with, they sent the wrong fork seals, actually mispackaged them. One quick call, spoke to an actual human, in america, and the new seals the next day. I HIGHLY recommend All Balls Racing.

Posted via Mobile

 

[bpeckm]

Thanks for the comments, all. I like to support whatever I can that is at least a USA business (though lord knows everybody sells stuff from all over nowadays!). I just want something good, not crap.

 

[missile150]

I bought All Balls from someone on eBay. Seamed to be the best bang for my buck, the seller was in the US, and they were the same that were sold on those other sites.

 

[cros36]

i got mine through all balls. got sent out the next day.

 

[5twins]

Did you throw that top hat shaped spacer out with the left rear wheel bearing? That'll cost you another $30, lol, lol.

 

[jamesgs4]

lol, lol...lol?

 

[Tomterrific]

That stands for "Don't throw anything in the trash!" On the bearing of the rear wheel there is an insert that fits inside the bearing. This fits so well that an entire legion of amature mechanics have thrown the shaped spacer out with the bearing thinking it was part of the bearing. You don't want that hassle.

Tom

 

[bpeckm]

Haven't tossed it .... yet.... but thanks to reading all this, I WILL be looking for that sucker...

 

[the Norwegian]

My first choice would be SKF, second Koyo Seiko. However most ballbearings theese days are produced to meet a certain ISO standard and should be sufficient.

Recently i bought some KOYO bearings at mikesxs, when i got the shipment the bearings where NOT Koyo but Nachi Quest.
Is it ok to sell one make of bearings and ship something else? I find such conduct very annoying.

And of which quality is Nachi Quest?

 

[OakBehringer]

Check the recent threads I have started. I just got some for half the price of mikes. Somebody mocked the bearings in my thread saying "you get what you pay for" - now I say the jokes on you sucka, Mike doesn't even tell you what he's going to ship! (Nachi, I believe, is actually a high quality Japanese bearing, so you're going to be ok.)

I wanna say its vxb or vbx bearings. They're a family owned bearing house, in California. They distribute Japanese bearings. Buy an distribute by the millions an you can sell them a lot cheaper. Quality seems better than the OEMs I pulled out and shipping was fast.

One of the brands they carry is Nachi. Cheaper than mikes. It pays to shop around.

- Adam

 

[YL82]

Due to this 2-year old thread, I found out about VXB.COM. I recently ordered some Nachi front and rear wheel bearings from them. They come in boxes labeled Quest.

http://www.vxb.com/page/bearings/PROD/Kit9728

I had also ordered a set of rear wheel bearings (and seals) from MikesXS which were described as Nachi bearings. What I got looked like Nachi bearings (same reddish covers), but were labeled as NTN and they had different numbers.

From reading a little (out of curiosity), I believe that NTN Corporation (Osaka, Japan) to be a subsidiary of Nachi-Fujikoshi Corporation.

As far as quality differences, I haven't a clue. Either way, they are both Japanese engineered bearings and aren't from freakin' China. NTN has been around since 1918 and are supposed to be the worlds 2nd or 3rd largest producer of ball bearings.

I also recently bought some AllBalls bearings, which are made in USA.

Did a search and came across this article from a couple of days ago regarding price fixing, which involves NTN, Nachi-Fujikoshi, Nippon-Seiko (NSK Ltd), & Jtekt, as well as bearing giant SKF.

http://business.financialpost.com/2...ine-ball-bearing-makers-in-price-fixing-case/

Just found another article from yesterday...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...ed-1-3-billion-in-eu-ball-bearing-cartel.html

Thought this was mildly interesting...

 

[jd750ace]

NSK, SKF, Fafnir, Torrington, and Timken all make high speed bearings for turbine engines under FAA-PMA. Not much more stringent quality control out there for bearings.

I've yet to run across anyone not satisfied with the quality of parts received from All Balls. I've been pleased with everything I have gotten from them. Just put a set of fork seals from them in my Road Star while I was doing a Race Tech job on it. Fair pricing and good quality.

 

[YL82]

JD,

It's not like Im going to return my Japanese bearings back in a pointless, principle-based gesture, right?

Let's just hope that the EU fines don't translate into eventual price increases for us down-stream Japanese bearing buyers.