Less than 200 miles after buying a 2003 XB9S and one of the rear wheel bearings has failed.

The SKF bearings look like a popular choice for replacements but I'm wondering what the significance of the last letter of part code after the '2RS' bit is ? For example, the rear bearing is 6006-2RS and then, sometimes, a final letter, usually H or I. For example: 6006-2RSH. Is this final letter significant or not ?

The online retailers that I've been looking at don't generally specify the last letter so I'm not sure that if I buy a 6006-2RS it's the same as the 6006-2RSH that's specified in the 'How to... change a wheel bearing' topic in the How To section of UKBEG.

Thanks in advance for any help on this...

This is who I use.
http://www.bearingboys.co.uk/6006-2RS_S ... ing-1859-p
I just buy 6006-2rs.
Not sure about the h on the end but the 2rs means 2 rubber seals i.e. on both sides of the bearing.
I would also do the front bearings at the same time 6005-2rs and possibly the swingarm bearings depending on mileage and I think there 6203-2rs but not sure.

Also if you don't have one buy a Free Spirits tensioner.

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Norrie.

H is high speed.

C is the clearance standard

I think the 6005 is 2RSH, but the 6006 is 2RS1, i.e. you can't get them any other way...

If I got them mixed in the How To, I will fix it now...

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08 Specialized Langster

Just for info what's the mileage?

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Norrie.

pash - the How To is correct, it's me that confused 6005-2RSH and 6006-2RS1. Sorry about that but thanks for pointing it out.

norrie - the mileage is 6000

But, I don't know how the bike has been ridden for the first 5800 miles. So, the bearing failure might be the result of 5800 miles worth of wheelies and stoppies.

The front bearings have orange seals. The rear ones are black. This seems to pose more questions than it answers: was the bike shipped with black seals and recalled to have orange seals fitted ? If so, that'd explain why the fronts are orange but would mean that it must be on its third set of rear bearings if they are now black ? Or, does it mean that the rear bearings are the original (defective) factory fitted bearings ? I guess I'll never know for sure...

Someone will be along to correct me if I am wrong, however, I think the early bearings in XBs were black sealed (not sure of the manufacturer), but there were some problems with them, so they changed to orange seals (NTK). Yours could have original bearings, but coming from different batches.

SKF will have black seals.

I helped bikerdude666 change his bearings yesterday, went round with (insufficient) tools (as it turned out). The drive side cage had fallen apart and had pushed the seal out. That bearing came out fine with my blind puller, however the other side would not shift (dont forget to use copa-slip on assembly). He will have to drift that out with the drive side bearing (and spacer) removed again.

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08 Specialized Langster

pash - that's useful info, thanks. It's the drive side bearing that's failed on my bike too. And, as with bikerdude666, the bearing has begun to fall apart. So, I guess I should remove and replace the other side first.

Thank you to everyone for all the info.

I would try and pull the drive side out first... Blind bearing pullers are a little kinder than a drift, the blind puller will give a more uniform axial load. If you punched the centre of the damaged bearing out with a drift, you would be in a pickle...

Have a read of this thread...

viewtopic.php?p=28399#p28399

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08 Specialized Langster

no use in making it harder than it is, I just put the tire assembly on an old tire and knocked the bearing out with an oversized flat-head, no excessive force...just tap, tap, tap around the inside edge till it plopped out and did the same with the other. Put the new bearing in the freezer for 5-10 minutes and heated the hole where the new bearing was going in (used my girlfriends hairdryer since I forgot my heat gun at work) and then gently taped the new bearing in with the old bearing acting as a buffer (recomendetaion from my local honda dealar mechanic)...was the front wheel though but I´m guessing same can be done with the back...had to trade in the rim when the back bearings failed....got luckey and the spacer jumped out and took the bearings place which had exploded after three days on the track and on my last run....honed out a good piece of the rim but rather that than instant back wheel lock-up

Thought I'd share the pain...

The first photo shows the failed bearing before I removed the wheel.


The second shows a new SKF bearing (left), the used NTN bearing from the other side of the wheel (middle) and the failed bearing (right). The bearing fell to pieces as soon as I removed the wheel.


I can't find any sign of rubber seals on the failed bearing which makes me wonder if the previous owner fitted a metal shield version instead.

Holy feck DNZ that bearing was well bad. I would think that you need to change the spacers as well but ask Maz on this.

I would also do the fronts as well. Read up on Jet washing and the like as well.

Seriously, I've lost count of the number of times I've seen bearings like that

Yes, you'll need a new spacer.

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Mithered ta death.
92 MB
96 S2T
98 S1W
00 M2
01 X1
03 P3
10 CR

I forgot to mention that the best price I found for bearings was Bexhill Bearings:

http://www.bexhillbearings.co.uk/

They offer most bearings in budget or branded pricing. The branded version is either SKF, FAG, or NTN but you don't get a choice of the specific brand if you order through the website. However, you can give them a call and check what brand they have in stock before ordering. Alternatively, if you want a specific brand that they don't currently have in stock they can order it in for you (usually takes one day) and then ship it. The web site prices are slightly less than their normal shop price but I was offered the web price over the phone. It's probably worth checking the web price before you call to make sure you get the same deal over the phone.

They're a main dealer for SKF, FAG, and NTN. I'm sure that there are other retailers that can supply NTN but Bexhill was the only one that I found that offered all three brands at the same low price.

I also forgot to mention...

Some of the tools that I found useful, or would have if I'd had them:

Sealey do a 'Blind bearing puller' that does a good job of getting an intact bearing out of the wheel. The puller is also available as a Clarke branded item. It's currently around £100 if you shop around (e.g. price of the Clarke version at MachineMart).

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.a ... uctid=5808

Sealey (and Clarke, and others) also do a 'Bearing and seal driver' tool. This is a set of aluminium discs that attach to an aluminium handle that's used to drive the bearing into the wheel. Cost is around £45-£50 although I bought an unbranded version off Ebay for £32.

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.a ... uctid=8894

If the bearing breaks up as mine did (see pics above) then you have a problem getting the bearing shell out of the wheel because you can't get behind it (the bearing puller acts on the inner part of the bearing not the shell). I eventually managed to get the shell out using a thick 45mm washer that I'd reduced two sides of so that it could be slotted into the shell and then used the puller on this. It took a lot of time and effort and I thought that there must be a better way so I browsed the Sealey catalogue. They do a tool called the 'Blind bearing removal tool kit' which will definitely do the job. It's a torsion screw type bearing removal tool with two arms that have ends like flattened ball bearings. The tool is setup so that the ends engage the bearing shell and then the screw is used to pull the bearing shell from the wheel. You'll need to figure out a way of putting something in the middle, or behind, the bearing shell for the screw to work against.

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.a ... ctid=11242

(Don't be put off by the high prices on the Sealey web site links. Retailers generally offer all these tools at much lower prices.)

I think it’s generally agreed that XB wheel bearings are undersized and a change in seal type is not going to change that but the following article on the SKF website explains that the suffix ‘H’ after the ‘RS’ is probably your best bet to keep water and crap out for longer

http://evolution.skf.com/new-sealing-so ... -bearings/

The article is almost 16 years old so my apologies in advance if this is old hat but couldn’t find anything about it elsewhere on UKBEG

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Yes, they all do that sir