Greetings,
Well, it finally happened. My pint sized Muni partner has wiped out the
bearings in his 16" MUni. They squeak, they grind and they’re generally
void of any grease at all. Does anyone know what size bearings I should
purchase? He has a 16" United with lollipop style holders. I’m guessing
35 mm? If anyone has any advice on how to properly replace them it’s
appreciated as well. I’ll purchase a crank puller. Do I need any other
special tools?
Thank you in advance.
Cheers,
Jason
You will need a bearing puller to get the lollipops off of the axle. unicycle.com will have all of the tools you need and the lollipop bearing assemblies. If you have to buy the bearing assemblies from unicycle.com anyway it makes sense to get all the tools from them, too. It will save you a trip and keep you from wondering if you’re buying the right tools.
Re: Micro-Muni bearing size?
harper wrote:
>
> You will need a bearing puller to get the lollipops off of the axle.
> unicycle.com will have all of the tools you need and the lollipop
> bearing assemblies. If you have to buy the bearing assemblies from
> unicycle.com anyway it makes sense to get all the tools from them, too.
> It will save you a trip and keep you from wondering if you’re buying the
> right tools.
>
Right, but what size bearings for the 16" lollipop assembly, 35mm or
40mm?
Jason
Re: Re: Micro-Muni bearing size?
Jason-
Just call them up, 1-800-unicycle, and tell them what you want to do. They’ll tell you the right bearing size and send you everything you need, including the tools to do the job. Ask for Amy, she’s an ACE mechanic there. And tell her I sent you.
And you’ll also need to use the bearing puller to push the old bearing out of the lollipop. At least that what I had to do when changing the bearings on my Pashley which has lollipop bearing holders.
I had lollipop bearings on a Zephyr. The frame cracked and I wanted to save the bearings. I drilled three holes in the backsides of the lollipops to access the outer bearing race and used a drift punch to get the bearings out unharmed. The lollipops were essentially unharmed also, just slightly ventilated. I saw no way to use a bearing puller to extract them from the lollipops. But then I am not a GENIUS like John Childs.
Hmmm… How to explain this without pictures…
The bearing is press fit in the lollipop so the bearing is going to need some force to be removed from its happy home.
I put a nickel (5 cent coin) over the hole in the bearing. The arms of the bearing puller grab on to the outside of the lollipop. The plunger on the bearing puller pushes on the nickel which pushes on the bearing. The bearing gets pushed out of the lollipop holder. So instead of a bearing puller you have a bearing pusher.
Another way to look at it is that you’re pulling the lollipop off the bearing. So now it’s a lollipop puller instead of a bearing puller.
HTH
I understand, but using this technique you are pushing on the INNER race to force the OUTER race through a press fit. That’s considered naughty.
Re: Micro-Muni bearing size?
Naughty? Perhaps. But, what is the purpose in removing the bearings in the
first place? Presumably to replace them. So why bother being careful?
-mg
“harper” <harper.cwmmp@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:harper.cwmmp@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> I understand, but using this technique you are pushing on the INNER race
> to force the OUTER race through a press fit. That’s considered naughty.
>
>
> –
> harper - Gearhead
>
> -Greg Harper
>
> “I like getting it, no matter how often.” -Jerry Gruss
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> harper’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/426
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/21158
>
Re: Re: Micro-Muni bearing size?
Right. Since the purpose is to remove a bad bearing, being naughty to it isn’t a concern.
However, when installing a new bearing it is important not to be naughty. When pressing the bearing into the lollipop you should press only on the outer bearing race.
When pressing the bearing onto the hub you should only press on the inner bearing race. A short piece of 7/8" seatpost, conduit, or other suitable diameter pipe can be used to press the bearing on.
Re: Micro-Muni bearing size?
john_childs wrote:
>
> Right. Since the purpose is to remove a bad bearing, being naughty to
> it isn’t a concern.
Thank you for the explanation(s). I’ve been digesting… When my parts
arrive, I’ll see if I can follow your instructions and I may refer back
to rsu for assistance.
Cheers,
Jason
Being naughty to my almost-seized up bearings in the Pashley lollipops, I put the holder on top of a vice and pounded them out with a hammer and tube centered on the inner bearing race. Not only did they come out (with a lot of beating!) but the pounding made the bearings nice and smooth again! But I threw them away anyway…
You don’t want to know how ‘naughty’ I was to my bearings when I tried to remove the lollypops from my pashley frame. They wont do it again 