Tapered bearing dilemma

[Surfjayce]

not sure how many people will have a view on this but i thought id throw it to you guys to get some input.

im changing the steering head bearings to tapered and wondered what the best option for the bottom bearing would be

choice 1, same bearing as the top one and use a Genuine bottom seal

choice 2, same bearing as top but comes with its own fitted seal

[Seeker]

Personally, I don't have an opinion (great way to start an answer), so I searched using this url:

https://tinyurl.com/y4plnc6e

(if you put the word "site:" and a space in front of forums.sv650.org followed by what you're searching for it will use google to search the forum - I just used tinyurl to make it smaller).

Anyway, your question doesn't appear to have a wrong answer but the integrated seal seems the most popular choice but I only skimmed a couple of threads, there's a limit to my unpaid conscientiousness

[Surfjayce]

Well if a single comment from spanner man is correct then the genuine seal would foul the tapered bearing anyway so i guess its the one with the built on seal.

thanks for your lil search and nice search tip too Seeker

[R1ffR4ff]

I've always used the ones that come with the Kit(Usually All Balls kits) but some of these kits come with extra un needed washers so make sure you get the correct configuration.The first All Balls kit I used years ago I contacted All Balls to make sure and they replied pretty fast and were excellent with great advice.


HTH

[Surfjayce]

I looked at the all balls kit and the top seal doesn't look right, just looks like a standard seal when it should be a covering dust seal for the top of the head, not sure if it was just default illustration but put me off.

[R1ffR4ff]

Originally Posted by Surfjayce

I looked at the all balls kit and the top seal doesn't look right, just looks like a standard seal when it should be a covering dust seal for the top of the head, not sure if it was just default illustration but put me off.

That's why I contacted them to be safe

[mikerj]

Use genuine bearings and seals, I'm not a fan of tapered bearings in steering stems. The difference between too loose and tight enough to introduce considerable friction is very small, they don't tolerate any misalignment and you have the ball ache with seals. "All Balls" sells unbranded Chinese parts as well, you don't get SKF/Koyo/NTN from them.



If taper rollers genuinely offered an advantage, OEMs would fit them to their high end machines but splash out £35k on a new Panigale V4R and you get the same kind of top quality ball races that all the other manufacturers use on their sports bikes.

[Surfjayce]

The advantage of tapered bearings over balls isnt a motorcycle question, its a standard industry bearing thing and tapered are preferred over balls in most applications, so the translation to the motorcycle market is self explanatory. as for All Balls, i dont think il buy from them anyway, just seems like a "sheep followers" type of aftermarket company, il be getting Koyo tapered from simplybearings.