I recently purchased a pair of standard wheels from a fellow member to fit some PR4's to for rainy days and winter. Although they only have 11k miles on them I am fitting new bearings, as well as stainless wavy discs, a respray to Vibrant Orange (Repsol) and captive spacers. Imagine my delight, when showing the storeman at work the bearing and oil seal numbers, getting the reply that they are all "on the shelf" items and that he will get me all I need plus a spare set..named quality brands too. Obviously no charge, but as they only cost the company, for example, front wheel bearings £1.50 each as opposed to around a £5 from a major internet site, a full set of bearings and seals would only be, at most £20. Somedays my job has its bonus points
Do the old bearings have a part number on them OP? Only asking as if the Storeman has just matched up the new bearings on size alone how do you know they are of the same grade to be running/loaded on a 180 mph bike? Don't know much about bearings so it's just a question that's popped in to my head that's all, not avin a dig or owt!
It's a very valid question and certainly one well asking and deserves an answer as best I can give I used a link on here to a Honda parts catalogue. That gave me the bearing numbers and sizes. Bearing numbers are standardised across manufacturers, the only variances being open or sealed by either metal or rubber shielding. You are quite correct in that bearings indeed do come in varying qualities, from the budget, no name brand, to the well know quality makes that cost that bit more. Generally speaking the lower priced bearings will have sketchy case hardening on the bearing surfaces and low quality lubricant that wont last long Being heavy industry and very reliant on high quality stuff that will last in an aggressive environment and getting 24/7/360 running loads we stick to the known makers, SKF, FAG, Koyo and Timken. The majority of Japanese OEM bike bearings are provided by Koyo, these are a reasonable quality bearing and well priced in the aftermarket. The high end are Timken, FAG and SKF, SKF being the ones I have asked the storeman to get as I know that they are going to last a long time Besides I'm not paying for them...although if I was they would still be the bearings of choice regardless of cost. I hope this helps
The sprocket carrier bearings (2) on the 1000rr are not standard like the other bearings. The part number is 6028 which is fitted to most Japanese bikes. Can you tell me if this is now incorporated as universal number Tom???
The 6028 bearings, the storeman told me, were also a stock standard bearing size. Here is a link to a bearing site, this has a bearing number in addition to 60/28. Simply Bearings Ltd
