How To Remove and Install Sealed Bearings, How To Overhaul Sealed Bearings, and What Products to Use

CONTENT THYSELF

Get it? It’s supposed to be a pun on the word “content:” normally, you would pronounce the phrase “content thyself,” with the emphasis on the second syllable, but I’m pronouncing it “content,” with the emphasis on the first syllable, as in “web content,” which is what I’m going to try to provide more of in this blog from now on. Many of my readers, about seven of them, have mentioned that I basically talk too much, so what I’m going to try to do is show, not tell, with links, photos, videos, how-to’s….mostly, I don’t want to end up sounding like Nicholas Fehn:

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?mea=229107

“Content….” Hilarious. In linguistics, I think it’s called a heteronym, when two words are spelled the same way but pronounced differently, and have different….

Wait a minute….never mind. Onwards and upwards, to

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SMILE AND OVERHAUL A SEALED BEARING AT THE SAME TIME

Why, with a dental tool, of course….

In the current issue of Velonews, Lennard Zinn, who by now is so renowned that his name would be capitalized even if it weren’t, has an article entitled Upgrading To Ceramic Bearings: A How-To Manual, in which he provides instructions for removing steel bearings and installing ceramic ones. Here’s the article in pdf form:

velonews upgrading to ceramic bearings: a how-to manual - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: velonews upgrading to ceramic bearings: a how-to manual

If you click the arrow to the left of the word "ipaper," a pull-down menu will appear allowing you to do things like email the pdf to yourself or a friend, or print it out. If you click on the maximize tab in the upper right, a full-sized version will appear on your screen, but you'll need to click the back button on your browser to return to the blog.

Velonews is a large publication with small margins, and my poor little 3-in-1 couldn’t handle its full page size, so I had to scan it half a page at a time to keep it legible. If that doesn’t work for you, I encourage you to buy the issue. It’s a good one, really.

Anyway, I have to say, with all due respect, that I’m surprised Velonews printed the article. As usual, Zinn covers everything with his framebuilder’s attention to detail, and provides all the “tricks” that you would expect from this kind of article, like using sockets and quick releases as bearing presses for hubs. It all comes across as easy, rewarding, and maybe even fun. It’s the kind of article that shop mechanics take with them into the bathroom so that customers don’t see them reading it, and it divides said mechanics into two groups: those who come out of the bathroom saying “why didn’t I think of that?” and those who come out saying “I was the first one to think of that.”

To me, it all makes sense, and I can read it and apply Zinn’s instructions with relative ease. That’s partly because I was obviously the first one to think of them, and partly because I’ve worked as a shop mechanic for the better part of ten years. However, I can still recall when I was reading those articles as a beginning cyclist, and trying to apply the instructions contained in them to my long-suffering KHS mountain bike. The result was my first foray into debt. As one bike shop manager replied, when I apologized for trying to work on my bike myself instead of bringing it to him, “Not at all. Home mechanics are our best customers.” Believe me when I say that bike shops all over the country are lighting candles in front of custom Zinn cranks as thanks for this article, not in the least because the hubs, bottom brackets, headsets, as well as the ceramic bearings that are being crushed I mean installed are about the highest of high-end product, and therefore the most expensive….

“Oh, it looks like you damaged the hub body when you tried pressing the bearing in at an angle. No, it can’t be machined. Yes, you can replace the hub, but we’ll need to cut the spokes out, which means we’ll need to rebuild the wheel. I suppose you can save the rim, but it won’t ever be the same, and with what you’ll be spending in labor, you may as well get a new wheel. I suppose you could always build it yourself….no? I don’t know, let me get my Mavic catalog. Oh, it looks like these wheels are only sold in front-rear sets….”

You get the idea….

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Maybe you need to upgrade to ceramic bearings. Maybe you don’t. All I know is that sealed bearings need to be maintained like any other. If you have steel ones, and they feel rough, why not try to overhaul them first? Worst case scenario, you decide to upgrade to ceramics anyway, in which case you will have practice in how to overhaul sealed bearings. Because, yes, even sealed ceramic bearings need to be maintained; as Zinn mentions in his article, “SRAM recommends a service interval of 100 hours for the ceramic bearings in its Red crankset.” So for you, that means once every two weeks, right….?

STEP 1: REMOVING THE BEARING

For this, I really will refer you first of all to the manufacturer’s instructions, and second of all to Zinn’s article. However, I do mean “first of all to the manufacturer’s instructions.” Manuals are easy to find online, and if you have questions, there are always customer service staff sitting at their desks, tapping their pens and watching cycling.tv, who are ready to answer them, and occasionally even guide you through the process.

STEP 2: GATHERING YOUR MATERIALS

Here's what we'll be using. Yeah, yeah, I know. But you have to understand one thing: I wouldn't promote Finish Line products this shamelessly if I didn't think they were the best ones for the job.

You’ll notice what appears to be a dental tool lying alongside the grease gun. That is not a Finish Line product. Every shop mechanic has a species of tool belonging to the genus pointy. It can be a spoke that’s been sharpened on a grinder, a metal rod that’s been turned on a lathe, then sharpened on a grinder, or, in this case, a dental tool, which I find to possess a point of unparalleled sharpness.

Incidentally, Brett Fleming, the service manager of The Bike Gallery in Portland, Oregon, and unequivocally the best mechanic I’ve ever met, gives his mechanics a custom, hand-turned pointy tool when he feels they’ve earned it through consistent, quality work. Mine has sadly disappeared, or more likely been stolen. If it’s the latter, the mechanic who stole it will get his the next time he’s called upon to repair the internals of an older generation Rolf freehub body using a technique known only to Brett…

STEP 3: REMOVING THE SEAL

In addition to superior durability, sealed bearings, whether steel or ceramic, are designed to offer significantly smoother performance than loose or caged balls. As a result, your criterion for smoothness when you reach the end of the overhaul should be really high: you don’t want any roughness at all. Consoling yourself with a “good enough” isn’t acceptable.

Which is why you need to be really careful with this step, because it’s the only one in which you really stand to damage the bearing, in this case by damaging the seal so that it doesn’t seat correctly when you put it back on at the end.

What you’ll need to do, as carefully as possible, is insert your pointy tool between the outer circumference of the seal and the metal retainer of the seal, lift the seal out at that point, then simply slide the dental tool under the seal and around the outer circumference to lift the whole seal off.

It’s almost exactly the same method as inserting a tire lever under the bead of a tire, then running the lever around the circumference of the tire to get it off.

STEP 4: THE BEARING REVEALED

This is what the open bearing looks like. Most bearings have another plastic seal on the opposite side, in which case you may as well remove that, too. Some have a metal seal that can’t be removed.

You’ll notice that the bearing is not actually dirty. Because I am obsessive about keeping my bike clean and well-lubricated, I literally could not find a dirty bearing, at least not off of my bikes….

STEP 5: DEGREASING THE BEARING

Many shops will soak a bearing in a bath of degreaser, then blow it dry using an air compressor, also blowing any remaining dirt and grease out in the process.

Since I don’t have a compressor at home, I use Speed Clean. It’s a powerful degreaser with an equally powerful spray, and it also dries quickly, in only a couple of minutes, which is not the case with other degreasers.

And the drying part is important, especially for a sealed bearing, where you can’t really get at the internals with a rag. You don’t want any leftover degreaser in there, breaking down the fresh grease you just put in.

If you decide to use the bath method, use a degreaser like Multi, not Citrus; the latter might damage the plastic seals, which need to fit back in as tightly as possible.

STEP 6: THE BEARING CLEANED

STEP 7: GREASING THE BEARING

First, I like to use a grease gun to fill the gaps between the balls.

STEP 8: GREASING IT SOME MORE

Then, I like to put another layer of grease across the top of the bearing using my finger. Naturally, if you removed the seals on both sides, you would do this on both sides.

STEP 9: REPLACING THE SEAL

In keeping with the tire comparison we used earlier, this is much like seating the bead of a tire on a rim. Lay the seal on top of the bearing, then press down on it, moving along its circumference. You’ll feel the depressions along its inner and outer circumferences seat themselves in the metal retainer, much like the bead of a tire seating itself in the rim. Take a look to make sure there aren’t any bulges where it didn’t seat, and….

STEP 10

You’re done.

Put your finger through that hole, and give the bearing a spin to distribute the grease. Feel that? Now tell me: do you really need ceramic bearings?

And even if the answer’s yes, remember: ceramic bearings need love, too….

Here are links to the pages on the Finish Line website for the products I used or mentioned:

http://www.finishlineusa.com/products/speed-clean.htm

http://www.finishlineusa.com/products/degreaser.htm

http://www.finishlineusa.com/products/fortified-grease.htm

http://www.finishlineusa.com/products/grease-pump.htm

WHY I KEEP MENTIONING FINISH LINE PART 1

Seriously, it’s kind of a long story, but essentially what it comes down to is that I’m friends with Hank Krause, the owner of the company. He came into the first shop I worked at, only a couple of months after I’d been hired (see the second entry in this blog to find out what that was like), and when he saw me using Cross Country in the shop, walked over, told me who he was, and talked to me for an hour, much to the chagrin of The Owner.

Hank founded Finish Line in 1988, and in doing so, founded the category of bike-specific lubricants, degreasers, and greases, the so-called “maintenance products,” all when he could have been doing something much more lucrative with his time. Because the manufacture of Finish Line products didn’t require a CNC machine (or anodizing machine; it was the 80’s, after all), Hank and Finish Line never really got the recognition of a company like, say, Paul’s, but I don’t think that really bothered him, and he continued producing the best possible products with his usual humility and earnestness. He shaved his moustache….

Anyway, Hank and Finish Line gave me all the support I asked for at the different shops I’ve worked at over the years, whether by providing samples for events, replacing defective aerosol cans, or supporting teams, so now it’s time to reutrn the good will. For another take on why I'm doing this, take a look at my profile...

I’M OUT

Yesterday, when I turned onto the main road that runs through Dryden, I noticed that the street was glittering with broken glass. I rode through it, periodically dipping one hand down to clean the glass off my tires, figuring it would end in clean road again. Note to self: next time, wear gloves…. As I kept riding, I passed Rick, who had pulled over one of those tractor trailer dump trucks, and waved hello.

Moments later, the same truck passed me at highway speeds, spraying a seemingly endless, billowing cloud of the powdered glass out of its rear, and all over the road, and me. I stopped, not sure what to do, and then the sun came out, and the road turned diamonds. It was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen.

I was right near a country road that I’d never taken before, so I turned onto that, and it took me into the high hills, where spring is still scrawling its name in lowercase flowers, and the air is filled with apple blossoms.

Stephan

Who I Am, What This Blog Is All About, How Maintenance Can Make You Faster For Less, and What Makes Lube Alluring

From The American Heritage College Dictionary

maintain tr. v. –tained, -taining, tains. 3. To keep in a condition of good repair or efficiency.

From www.urbandictionary.com - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=maintain

1.	maintain	133 up, 13 down
	To keep your composure even in the most adverse and drunken circumstance. Dude I need to maintain or I won't make it to the next bar.

I’m Stephan and I like to ride bikes. You probably ride a bike, too, and if you ride a bike, you like to go fast. Maybe you like sitting up on your cruiser with your arms out and the wind pushing you along, maybe you like winding your 54x11 to 200 rpm and holding it until you feel an aneurism forming, maybe you like finding hills so steep that you have a 2.3-inch wide callous on your tailbone from where you sit on your rear tire-

whew....trackies, BMXers, and 'crossers will get their own postings....

-but however you do it, you like to go fast, at least sometimes, maybe always.

It seems that magazine editors know this at least as well as I do, because they’re busting the bindings of their publications with info on how to go, not fast, but faster (my favorite contributions to this body of knowledge come from Bicycling, like this month’s “Legs Of Steel: Do This Now”). You read them, and suddenly what seemed fast before seems slow now, and what seems fast now will be slow later, until any given ride becomes just another stage in the the maximization of your cycling-specific athletic potential. Eventually, you become page 68 of The Cyclist's Training Bible....

Alright, I'm being overly dramatic, and God knows there are many of us who don't even know what The Cyclist's Training Bible is, though it is a good book hah hah hah. But there really is an overwhelming amount of info out there on how to ride faster, jump higher, and hopefully stop more effectively. And it’s hard to look away, because who doesn’t want to learn how to suffer less in a headwind, or eke a little more rhythm out of a trail. But blessed be the readers who flip through those magazines and laugh it all off, or better yet amuse themselves by heading straight for the increasingly bizarre classified sections (while you’re looking at this month’s Bicycling check out how the ad for a “2 Seat Bike – Drives Like A Car,” is placed right next to “Spoil Her For Valentine’s Day! Send Her A Pajamagram!” Chances are anyone who buys the first then tries to do the second will end up turning in frustration to the inflatable companion sold on the following page).

Because the fact is, fulfilling as maximizing athletic potential can be, Cycling ain’t something you can do wearing a pair of sneaks and an old t-shirt; “cycling,” yes, but “Cycling,” which is what the magazines are talking about, not so much. It’s a technical, equipment-intensive, and potentially expensive sport. True, there are plenty of trends that celebrate the simplicity of the bicycle, like beater-bike races, or the fixed-gear fad that’s probably passing its apex as I’m writing this, but the fact remains that if you grow addicted to riding fast relative to others or to yourself, that is to say, if you become a Cyclist, you’ll eventually learn why “upgrade” is heard in bike shops as frequently as “presta or schrader?”

Ironically, the exception to this is the Professional Cyclist, particularly the Professional Road Cyclist. I say “ironically” because when it comes to the best equipment, the Professional Road Cyclists has it all as a result of possessing the talent to not actually need it. Entire bike companies stake their reputations on the performance advantages their products supposedly offer, but the fact remains that, when mechanics of practically all the pro road teams have to tape weights to their riders’ bikes so they're heavy enough to meet the UCI’s minimum weight limit, the most significant performance advantages have to come from the riders themselves, either from training or diet or….well, enough has been said on that topic, so let's look to the future. Go Slipstream….

However, you’re not a Professional Road Cyclist, not even close, despite the twenty or so percent of you who think you are, based on those occasional reader polls on the subject. In your case, upgrades are often directly related to that coveted sweetness of speed. And unless you have an unlimited amount of money to spend on equipment (true for more than you may think; check out the Master’s B field at your next local race), or are willing to live out the back of your Corolla on a steady diet of Rahmen noodles to free up the rest of your so-called income for your bike, you’re going to need to pick your battles: upgrade your tires or your chainrings? Get the stiffer stem or the seatpost with adjustable setback? Replace all of your steel bearings with ceramic ones at a cost equal to one month’s rent without utilities, or get four ounces of chain lube for less than a pack of condoms?

Not that I'm suggesting you give up safe sex in return for a smooth, efficient drivetrain, although....no, I'm not. But if you're a guy and you ride, conventional wisdom says you're useless for that kind of thing anyway, and if you're a girl....well, make him buy 'em.

Chapter 10, In Which He Finally Comes To The Point

Sorry, I got a little distracted there....Now, I know the improvements in performance offered by a full ceramic bearing upgrade and a lube aren’t necessarily equivalent, but here’s what I’m saying: a couple of weeks ago, during a rare warm spell here in upstate New York, I rode a friend’s Cervelo Soloist Carbon after he’d upgraded all of the bearings, and I mean all, right down to the derailleur pulleys, for about $350, just like CSC does with their bikes. I should say "only $350;" he got them wholesale.

I’d ridden the bike before, and I immediately noticed the difference. It was worth at least a gear, possibly two, and I’m sure it would have been easy to quantify with a power meter. Considering how many races are won by half a wheel, one could say that, all other things being equal, it was a race-winning (or, in non-competitive terms, faster-making) upgrade.

But the thing that kept coming to mind was what the ride reminded me most of, qualitatively speaking: a clean drivetrain lubricated with a quality lube.

Which, of course, you can get for about $340.01 less than the ceramic bearing upgrade….

Again, I know I’m exaggerating here, but really, I think you can see what I mean, and I really do believe that the improvements in performance are not all that dissimilar. As a mechanic, it’s always blown my mind to see the lengths people will go through to imitate the pros, without ever considering the humble combination of degreaser and quality lube that every pro mechanic spends hours utilizing, from making the choice of what lube to use for what condition (more on this in another entry), to cleaning riders’ bikes both efficiently and thoroughly (more on this in another entry), to knowing what parts to lube, and what parts not to (more on this in another entry).

INTERLUDE: An Ode To Lube

If you really want to imitate the pros, consider this. Lube is beautiful, it’s lore, the stuff of legends, tradition, technology, sublime as a Rapha cycling cap. The knowledge of how to apply it correctly, in a manner that will make the difference between winning and losing, between needing a bike change at a ‘cross race and not needing one, is the bailiwick of that old Belgian mechanic who cut his teeth on the infields of the Ghent Six, the one with the tired, lined face and fingers sensitive enough to tell by plucking the exact tension of a spoke, but strong as steel pliers, making them unsuitable for the derrieres of French podium girls. Not that he cares; he’d rather sit in the back of the team truck under a single light bulb, lubing his riders’ chains one….link…at….a…..time…..because he knows. He knows that tomorrow he will not be the one leaning out of the team car window, trying to squirt lube onto a chain at 28 mph. while the break disappears up the road in pouring rain. No, tonight he will use Finish Line Pro Road, and tomorrow smile, maybe, at the victory celebration before shrugging his way into the cold to clean off the bikes and begin all over again his ageless pursuit….

C’mon, are you telling me you don’t want to be that guy?

And even if you don’t, consider this: I mentioned above how the ceramic bearing upgrade felt like a clean, well-lubed drivetrain. That feeling is worth a ton in intangibles; it belongs to a whole category of other feelings that make you faster, like the feeling you get from a tailwind, a draft, berms on a trail, the banking on a track….it’s like Leipheimer said in the January issue of Velonews, about the sensations he experienced as he was getting his time checks during his awesome final time trial at last year’s Tour:

And that builds, you know. You’re able to push yourself all that much harder…

In the case of lube, you're talking momentum for less than $10. You’ve gotta love it.

And best of all, you can do it yourself, unlike the ceramic bearing upgrade, which I would be willing to wager you cannot, unless you’re a fairly confident bike shop or team mechanic with access to tools like a bearing puller. And even then….all I can say is that, by the end of this week, my friend was complaining that it sounded like Captain Crunch had taken up residence in his bottom bracket. The kid who installed those was no Alejandro Torralbo, and neither are you (to the first person to correctly identify Alejandro Torralbo goes a free 4 oz. bottle of my current favorite lube, Finish Line Pro Road CR; “CR” stands for “Ceramically Reinforced;” more on why that’s brilliant in another entry....)

And let’s not forget one last and exceedingly important point: cleaning and lubrication don’t just enhance the performance of a drivetrain. They protect it from early wear, essentially saving you more at each turn of the crank. Last time I looked (this morning, in a fit of lust), a Dura-Ace group was retailing for about $1,300….

So the moral of all this yapping: you need to clean and lube your chain anyway, so you may as well do it, do it right, do it often, and reward yourself by riding faster for less.

Before I go, I’d like to address a question that I feel is insufficiently asked by bloggers of themselves….

What gives me the write?

Nothing, really, an admission I’m making in the hopes that my humility will make me seem like more of a good guy than I actually am. Technically speaking, I suppose what qualifies me is ten years riding, racing, living, and breathing bikes, and what I’ve always held up to myself as a relentlessly objective view of everything in the cycling industry, including my own abilities and habits as a mechanic. I’ve worked in shops, as a service manager, store manager, buyer, and seller, and I've also worked for manufacturers, mostly in marketing, because I like to tell tall tales, then cut them down to size.

And did I mention that I like to ride fast?

Thanks for reading (as Tyler would have it; curious to see what he makes of Rock Racing),

Stephan

Which reminds me: if you haven’t seen it yet, CHECK OUT THIS EXCELLENT SPOT BEFORE IT DISAPPEARS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEXSi1kiUbw