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Hi,
My usual trick of pulling apart a cartridge bearing, degrease, clean and pack with loads of grease is not working and the bottom cartridge on my Hope is still quite gritty. Despite it looking spotless and I can't see any pits on the walls and the balls look fine.
So, need new bearing. The headset is a tapered variety in a Mk2 Nomad. Think it's integrated top and regular bottom. Do I just get any old Hope 'tapered' bottom bearing or Hope 1.5 bearing? Or are there more options than that?
And do I really need to be paying £15+ for Hope branded cartridge bearing? I know not all bearings are equal, but cartridge bearings generally are if they're the same grade of bearing and I object to paying just for the brand name. Does Katec do Hope compatible headset bearings? 😉
I also want to get a spare for my On One Smoothie on the c456, again bottom cartridge. Seems to be okay in use, no play or grinding and seems smooth, just that I tend to find out that bearings are screwed when I pull things apart and the fork is coming off my c456 and don't want to then be waiting for an order of another bearing if it falls apart. Turns out one of Superstar's £8 bearing fits these. Just wondering if it will also fit the Hope. I'm told it's the Type 2 bearing on Superstar for the Smoothie (45x45 1 degree, or 40x52x7 according to the picture). Hope's bearing has nothing printed on it.