Head Bearings. Ball or roller

[Grahamster]

Whilst doing the forks this weekend I noticed the headrace feeling a bit notchy. I took the yokes out to find the bottom bearing has corroded and pitted.

Looking up new bearings and on David silver and they list ball bearings but on my bike they are taper roller. I can see they have been changed before. Am I right in thinking the taper roller is an upgrade. If so where do I get them ?

Graham

[micklewright]

Taper roller all the way, replace the cups, top and bottom while you are at it.

Try WEMOTO or even local shops, get the full kit as is usually supplied, they are easy to fit with time.

Heres an example:

http://www.wemoto.com/bikes/Honda/CBR_4 ... Balls_USA/

Go for decent quality ones, ball bearings when totalled up by Fowlers of Bristol last week was in excess of £90 for my headrace, £30 for a full taper roller set from wemoto...

Cheers!

[amorti]

Whatever brand you get, pack them full with suitable grease, the tapered bearings are supplied more-or-less dry. They last ages if lubed well, but not so long if just given a thin smear of grease or none at all.

The Wemoto ones come with seals? Buy them, or any others that come with the seals. It's near impossible to extract the old bearing without spoiling the bottom seal.

[micklewright]

All Balls sets come with the top and bottom seals and are top quality compared to some that I have had in the past!

On grease also, If you are fitting to something with no grease nipples in the headstock get plenty in there... and make sure not to put in the wrong type! I have seen bikes with copper grease in head race bearings

[Grahamster]

Thanks guys. ordered new taper rollers now.

Copper grease , just when you think you've heard it all.

[lizard821000]

i dont trust racer ones, heard too many peeps saying they make the bike dive in too much!? id go for ball personaly......

[amorti]

i dont trust racer ones, heard too many peeps saying they make the bike dive in too much!? id go for ball personaly......

Hi,

re-read your post and tell me which part of it makes sense? You want as close to zero resistance from head bearings as possible, you can't have steering which moves too easily, there's no such thing.

Needle bearings are what factories should be fitting from new. Ball bearings are perfect for the radial load, but not designed to cope with the axial load that you get on a bike's headstock, whereas taper bearings are perfect for that, and thus last much longer.

The only difficulty with them (and it isn't hard) is getting them setup right. If you tension them incorrectly, the bike does handle a bit weird. Same with ball bearings but somehow more noticeable on tapered bearings, so it's worth going back to the headstock a few hundred miles later and checking the tension (same as ball bearings).