[Christ]

Is there any good reason not to use tapered bearings in the wheel instead of sealed ball bearings?

I'm looking at a wheel swap and can't find anything that's the right size for the swap in balls, but may be able to find something that will work in tapers... wondered if there's a reason this isn't done?

Ps - Duno how far it'll get, but I was chatting with an AllBalls rep [Kevin] and suggested that they list wheel bearing/axle sizes and swap kits for those as well, similar to the front end swap chart.

 

[gsf1200R]

idk

 

[rubbersdown]

Is there any good reason not to use tapered bearings in the wheel instead of sealed ball bearings?

Yes, they are not made to have the amount of torque on them that the axle needs to have.
Look at any application that uses tapered roller bearings such as car axles, car hubs and even bike steering stems. All of them are only torqued to 15 - 20lb's max upon FINAL assembly. Its not the torque itself that kills them its that they are not built to rotate with high torque on them. If you torqued an axle/spacer down on a tapered roller bearing to the 75-80lb's the axle needs, the bearing would wear out right quick, like within a couple hundred miles probably. Ive seen it on cars plenty of times when shitty mechanics just torque down on new hub bearings and then the car ends up in my shop 500 miles later with a nasty wheel shake because the new bearings already gone bad. They are literally made to be just right about hand tight.

 

[Christ]

Yes, they are not made to have the amount of torque on them that the axle needs to have.
Look at any application that uses tapered roller bearings such as car axles, car hubs and even bike steering stems. All of them are only torqued to 15 - 20lb's max upon FINAL assembly. Its not the torque itself that kills them its that they are not built to rotate with high torque on them. If you torqued an axle/spacer down on a tapered roller bearing to the 75-80lb's the axle needs, the bearing would wear out right quick, like within a couple hundred miles probably. Ive seen it on cars plenty of times when shitty mechanics just torque down on new hub bearings and then the car ends up in my shop 500 miles later with a nasty wheel shake because the new bearings already gone bad. They are literally made to be just right about hand tight.

Excellent answer, and one I should have known... Just don't relate some knowledge to other things, I guess.

 

[rubbersdown]

Excellent answer, and one I should have known... Just don't relate some knowledge to other things, I guess.

Yah, alot of people, myself included, forget how much bike mechanics and car mechanics can overlap. Bearings a bearing no matter what its in. Have you checked your local bearing house to see if they can help you track down what you need?

 

[Christ]

Yeah, I was hopin to not have to use custom bearings in this guy's bike to do the swap... no idea what the wheel came from, just some shit he's got laying around...

Customer's gonna pay for this one...

 

[jed.only]

whats the OD of the bearing pocket of the wheel youre using?

 

[Christ]

whats the OD of the bearing pocket of the wheel youre using?

Haven't even gotten around to measuring yet. Everything's still at his place waiting on him to figure out if he wants to pay me to do the work for him.