For All of your Suspension and Bearing Needs: Especially Trance Riders

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Just an FYI, this site has a ton of suspension stuff including bearings, fork seals, lubes, tools, etc and awesome pictorials.

http://www.enduroforkseals.com/index.html

I ordered their "Max" bearings for my Trance, cause the stock bearing were totally destroyed on the upper pivot of the "seat stays". I have been riding the bearings for two months and they have been great. They also emailed my good instructions on bearing removal and installation. I talked to the guys and they said that the Trance bearings are their #1 seller cause Giant skimped on the stock bearings. I have an '05, so they might have better bearings on newer models.

I also installed the fork seals on an '05 Manitou Minute and there were easy to install and worked great.

Also, they have some hard to find o-ring kits and such that the larger internet/mail-order place just don't have.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I've used this site before as have a few others with good results.
 

idbrian

Crotch Rot
Perfect timing, my '05 Trance rear end has started making some nasty creaking noises. I can't tell exactly where it is coming from other than it is near the rear shock. Is there a notorious fix that i can do for this?

Do i need to have a lot of experience to change these out or will a simple bike tool kit and directions suffice.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Experience and patience helps with this stuff. Nothing is impossible of course but speaking for my bike (Specialized Stumpjumper FSR) it's not as easy as just following directions. You need to make a DIY bearing press to get them in/out, which can be a PITA. One of my bearings had actually blown apart, so I needed to press the other ones out, take one apart, and reassemble the blown bearing to press it out. Otherwise getting the outer race out is damn near impossible.

Getting them back in is easy. But getting them out can be a chore.
 
D

DANSPANK

Guest
Getting them back in is easy. But getting them out can be a chore.

I second that on the Stumpjumper. I've had a really irritating squeak that I couldn't locate. Eventually Stan LeCupp suggested taking the suspension bearings apart. I've lubed 'em up and riding around off curbs on the road is now silent again! Hopefully that will ranslate to the trail too!

Thanks for the tip Alex!
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I second that on the Stumpjumper. I've had a really irritating squeak that I couldn't locate. Eventually Stan LeCupp suggested taking the suspension bearings apart. I've lubed 'em up and riding around off curbs on the road is now silent again! Hopefully that will ranslate to the trail too!

Thanks for the tip Alex!

Man if you're taking the time to press them out, you really should drop the $2-$3 to just replace the ones you pop out. If you want I can tell you exactly which ones you need for your bike so you can order them individually from the site instead of springing for the set. Use the same spacers of course. If nothing else order them now so when they shit the bed you have them right there.

As for getting them out, the DIY socket press is the gold standard for rubes like myself. Getting them in you can use a vice for the linkage, or a jumbo crescent wrench and a little TLC, or the sockets again if you need to though I find that a real PITA in comparison to the vice or wrench.

Oh and my squeaking went away when I swapped the 2 big bearings on the BB shell. They were both completely seized.
 
D

DANSPANK

Guest
Whooaaa-there silver, you seem to assume that I have more than my Target toolkit and old bike stand! Vice press-what? And socket-who?

Oh, and those two big buggers were the only ones I didn't regrease. Now I'm glum!

I see how she rides this weekend and then maybe get that info from you. I actually have another bike in the works, right Jason? And aparently I'll never use the Stumpy again so I may not need to replace those suckers if they are squeak-free now.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
On my trance, the top two were completely blown apart and I had to grind the races out, sucks! If the bearing are intact, you can tap them out with a socket are large as you can go (depending on the frame and the hole on the opposite side the bearing is pressed into). To get them in, you can use a series of washers and a bolt to press it in, works damn wiell and will cost you under 5 bucks!
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
On my trance, the top two were completely blown apart and I had to grind the races out, sucks! If the bearing are intact, you can tap them out with a socket are large as you can go (depending on the frame and the hole on the opposite side the bearing is pressed into). To get them in, you can use a series of washers and a bolt to press it in, works damn wiell and will cost you under 5 bucks!

If you need to you can rebuild the bearing with parts from another one. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to work to hold the inner race in.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Me neither. It sat in my basement for a few days before I stumbled upon a post on MTBR about it. The Specialized rep suggested to take a hammer and punch or screwdriver. I tried it, with no luck. I didn't want to grind it. I rebuilt it poorly and fully expected it to fail when I pressed it but it worked like a charm.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Me neither. It sat in my basement for a few days before I stumbled upon a post on MTBR about it. The Specialized rep suggested to take a hammer and punch or screwdriver. I tried it, with no luck. I didn't want to grind it. I rebuilt it poorly and fully expected it to fail when I pressed it but it worked like a charm.

I grinded it and didn't have a problem, just took a bit, I got almost all the way through and then used a screwdriver. When I first started to grind, my 4 month old was in the garage with me (fully out of harms way) and screamed like you wouldn't believe the second the dremel bit hit the metal. After I waited til mom was home. went ok.
 

THATmanMANNY

Well-Known Member
are there any other 3rd party sites for bearings besides enduro? Some made in china site. Or maybe one where I can just select which bearings I want to replace on my stumpjumper fsr
 

rlb

Well-Known Member
If they're just normal looking bearings you can probably take them out, measure them up, and order from a place like Grainger or McMaster Carr.

Does anyone else find the normal, informative back-and-forth between Norm and STB to be odd? Man this was a different place 6 years ago. And yay me for being the first steamy turd in this thread :D
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Does anyone else find the normal, informative back-and-forth between Norm and STB to be odd? Man this was a different place 6 years ago. And yay me for being the first steamy turd in this thread :D

Haha, good catch. Does seem kind of odd. :D
 
Top Bottom