Grease your shock linkage bearings kids!

Question

Grease your shock linkage bearings kids! Don’t be like Roger and ignore all the helpful suggestions to grease them yourself as soon as you get your new bike from the dealer. Otherwise yours may look like mine! (2 out of the 3 bearings in this photo are shot.)

I’m extremely disappointed that these aren’t properly greased at the factory, or during dealer setup. There’s no sign that there was ever any grease in the bearing shown in the photo. The larger bearing in the photo was in great shape and still had plenty of grease.

3 years 0 Answers 1251 views 0

Answers ( No )

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    Mine was the same. I was lucky I caught it early.

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    Same bearing I found last week with 0 grease.

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    This bearing had never seen a drop of grease before I opened it up.

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    Oy! On the plus side, think of how much better your suspension will be now

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    Thanks guys. Your previous posts about this is what motivated me to check mine too. I wish I would have done it sooner!

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    It’s unbelievable, and shameful, that they leave the factory and then the dealerships like this.

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    April Knapp

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    every bike that leaves the factory is like this, easy to do once you get the bike to ride it and replace, simple.

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    I can see why the dealerships don’t strip a new bike, I wouldn’t expect them to.
    Also, Beta don’t make the bearings, they just assemble the bikes with the bearings from the manufacturer; same as every other bike brand.
    My son just stripped and lubed his new KTM – most bearings were dry.
    It is the same with a lot of replacement bearings for cars, they come virtually dry.
    Maybe someone should re-aquaint the bearing manufacturers with the concept of lubrication?

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    Yeah, mine looked like this…

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    The linkage bolt bearing that is… the one for the shock was slightly better, but toast as well

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    Good grief….

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    Keep in mind, all bikes leave with very little grease in a bearing. It has weight and cost. All it has to do is last beyond a warranty period.

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    Since it’s apart, drill and tap a 1/4-28 zerk port.

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    Same thing with the steering stem bearings. I had to change mine at 150 hrs. Completely rusted and no grease.

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    Regardless of how much grease is in these bearings from new this will happen. The bearings get very hot because they take huge loads when riding in rough terrain. Then you ride into a puddle and everything cools down and contracts which draws the dirty water in. The dirt in the water breaks the grease down and forms a hydrophilic pasty emulsion which retains the water. From there the bearing rusts and its all over. The only way to combat this is to regularly re-pack the bearings and replace the seals at least every 6 months (if you ride every weekend). It’s actually more about the seals and the spacers that the seals run on than the grease, once the seals start going hard and the spacers get grooves in them they let water through

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    This is normal. Seals let water and dirt in, you have no idea how much grease was in there, no amount of grease will protect against poor/worn seal. Power washing defeats seals.

    I agree one should disassemble and grease for oneself when new if for no other reason than to learn how when it is clean and easy.

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    At 140 hours I was obviously overdue. That’s on me for sure. FWIW I never powerwash, for exactly this reason (and electrical too.) It’s also pretty dry here in SW Idaho and blah blah blah. Okay, I’ll inspect and re-grease more often!

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    One of the most damaging results of bad linkage bearings is that you can wear out the shock piston rod. Bad bearings can stop linkage from fully turning and will push the rod, wearing it out on one side

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    Sierra has the all balls complete kit with the shock bearing 🙂

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    So your mad that everybody told you you should pull your linkage bearings out and check/regrease them, but you didn’t listen and now you’re bearings are shot? I don’t get it lol The very first thing I did when I got my brand new 2016 300 RR was research common set up tips and advice for going over the bike when new. And one of the first things I did was tear down the suspension and steering components to grease all the bearings. It was literally all over the Internet. Of course Beta isn’t going to tell its customers that there’s little to no grease applied to some of the bearings, just like KTM doesn’t tell their customers. But like you said everybody advised you to do it, yet you ignored them. That’s not Beta or anybody else’s fault but your own. Rant over. Sorry Roger Smith you’re a good dude we’ve talked before but that’s the truth as far as I can see it.

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    Asah I’m not mad about the bearing failure. At 140 hours without inspecting or re-greasing that’s totally on me. The "everybody who told me" refers to several other posts here since the first of the year where new bike owners discovered dry bearings. My frustration isn’t at my personal situation so much as at Beta for not either greasing the new bearings or clearly communicating that new owners need to do it themselves. If anything I think it’s even more important for this particular model, as Beta seems so fond of referring to it as an "entry-level" bike. The tribal knowledge expectation that new Beta owners should "just know it needs to be done" is bullshit. If tribal knowledge is the expectation then why even bother with everything else that’s in the Owner’s Manual?

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    They are adequately greased from new.

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    Betas come with decent amount of grease, you can see it squeezed out just about every where, although it is not the best waterproof grease. garruntee they are greased better than a lot of other brands. The crap we put these bikes through, you have to expect to do some preventative maintenance.

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    I hope the Italians aren’t going cheap on us… This is bullshit. And all of the comments with the same problem… Gonna check mine asap. I specifically instructed the dealer to get it ready straight for the track. We’ll see.

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    There’s definitely no excuse that I didn’t know there was no grease in mine until now. Consider me properly shamed.

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    Dick Brew, be mindful….

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    At 80 hours my 2017 xt linkage bearings were fine. The smallest one had the least grease, and they all had not much grease.

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    All the Beta’s that have been through my shop were oozing with grease from the factory. I also just serviced a 17 250rr that had 120 hours in a very wet muddy summer and all the bearings were fine and still had factory grease. Personally I’d never go over 50 hours on the linkage and would recommend checking them as part of your initial prep.

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    Do you have to disassemble the whole linkage to grease them?

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    As a general practice I tear down every new bike I buy and put good quality waterproof grease in every bearing.

    I did that with the XT. I have pictures. It does come with grease in it, more than the Yamaha’s I have did, but it washes out relatively easy.

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    Good idea. (Tagging Edwin Whitelaw)

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    I’ve got a buddy that often says "Roger says…". I thought it was his imaginary friend for years, until I met Roger. That Roger doesn’t even have a motor cycle. Lol

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    At 29 hours my bearings were dry and needed servicing. I was surprised at how little Grease was in the linkage. Not only that but I don’t remember anybody giving me a heads up. I learned the hard way by servicing and putting some new bearings in when I could’ve just greased them up if I’d known

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    Graham Charlton

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    Did mine at 20 hours, was only lightly lubed but still fine. Head bearings were fine, it’s not just Beta, they all do it, god knows why.

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    IMO the bearings with grease or bearings without grease is probably due to the bearing manufacturer. The bike manufacturer gets the bearings installs them and puts the bike together and that’s it. The grease that’s in those bearings is not going to be a waterproof grease from the bearing manufacturer.

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    This is my modified lower shock bushing. My lower shock bearing look the same as Roger Smith last year at a hundred hours. I was in a bind and couldn’t get the bearing so I made this bushing. Stainless steel race to go in the link and an aluminum nickel bronze bushing with bel-ray grease. 120 hours later zero wear on bushing or race. I’m not convinced needle bearings are good idea in a linkage.

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    the deflection fat and all other camps was the first thing I did. What makes beta from the factory pure is an insolence !!!!

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    dont clean too often and too directly with pressure cleaner and take it apart and grease every 2 or 3 months. at every brand necessary! 😉

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    Roger on the smaller bearing u showed in the picture how did u get the two caps or are they seals off to get to the needle bearings?

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    I pulled mine apart today. The lower shock bearing actually had a little grease in there but it was a rust color. I did get the all balls linkage kit, so I pressed out the bearing and replaced it with the bearing, seals and bushings that were in the kit. The all balls uses a spherical bearing instead of the needle bearings for the lower shock. I forgot to take a picture of it but it looks similar to this. The other ones looked pretty good.

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