[Closed] Orange 5 swing arm bearings..... How long do they last. ?

My five is just 2 yrs old lots and lots of use 1 Alps trip and still feels fine on the original bearings

Once a year for me usually after winter.

Mmm ok. I've just been out and grabbed the wheel at the 3 and 6 position and rocked it and there is no play ?

Turned the bike back over onto its wheels and grabbed top of wheel and rocked and can feel knocking again.

Not sure if it's my eyesight but swear the swing arm gets closer to seat tube as I rock it ? Only a bit though.

I let Tue air out of the shock and cycled the suspension and it doesn't feel rough ?

Bottom shock bushing?

Anyway of testing that jonk ?

Mine's on it's 3rd set in four years but it is ridden in all weathers!

Only one set has failed and they seized after a few days in serious mud, felt fine when I moved the swingarm but they had seized and were slipping on the pivot. The others have been replaced as a routine after each winter. The occasional repacking with grease has kept them sweet but they look rather gritty after winter and as it's a 5 minute job to switch them out (and costs so little) I just do it as part of the winter refurb.

To check the shock bushing place a finger on it and the frame as you cycle the swingarm, any movement will be obvious.

If it only happens when you turn it upside down, then the bottom drawer is probably off its runners 😀

All depends on use on how long they last..unless yours were not 100% to start with..

Mine are nearly a year old and fine.. had plenty of mud and washing..

Rear maxle up nice and tight? Might be why your feeling knocking by wiggling the wheel..

Mine's a 2010 & they've been replaced once, regular use.

shock bushing 😀

Nah it happens when it's the right way up.

Ahhhh new bike paranoia. That's my diagnosis

Is because the top tubes too short 😉

An acquaintance who is a big Orange fan has replaced his bearings 3 times in less than a year on a new Five,for creaking rather than play.He reckons the new pinchless bearing and spacer clamp system isn't as good as the old one for keeping muck off them.Never had an Orange so no idea if that makes sense! Having recently changed all the bearings on two Horst link bikes I find myself hankering for the simplicity of a single pivot.

Mine is one of the newer ones without the pinch bolt.

I bought my 5 29 in September last year, and used it through out winter, whilst I was out (over Skiddaw on Friday) I felt a small amount of play.
Anyhow I was ready to replace with the bearing kit, 15 quid from Orange, I took the bearings out cleaned em and repacked em with grease and put back in no play now.
BTW you don't have to remove the swing arm as Orange instructions.

Posiwev mine is a 5 29.

Interested to hear how you removed then without removing the swing arm?
I don't suppose you know how long the axle is as it doesn't come all the way out if the bearings on mine.

Been getting a bit more out of mine since zip-tieing a mudflap made from a motorbike innertube to the downtube, to prevent the front wheel blasting it with spray.

Check the allen key bolt on the pivot and that the maxle are tight. Noticed some play in my five 29 as you describe and both had worked a bit loose. This sorted mine out..

Kurt do you mean the caps on either side ?

Yes, those are the ones

Easy test for knocking things - put a finger across the boundary of the two pieces that shouldn't be moving. You will be able to feel the tiniest bit of play, far more sensitive than your eyes.

So in this case put your finger on the shock eyelet and the alu spacers, then lift the back wheel up and down. Then try your finger over the swingarm bearing seat and the nut.

Useful technique.

Right just to follow up on this.

I've let the air out of the shock and tested the shock mounts... It's not those.

I've also removed the gold caps that cover the bearings and upside down with the rear wheel removed there is noticeable play apparent. If you look between the swingarm and frame where it bolts on there is what I think is a silver wahser, rocking the swing arm the play is coming from around that area on both sides.

I can't see any play between the bearings and the axle.

I'm really hoping the frame isn't ovalized.

Is there any way of checking apart from removing the swing arm ?

Getting slightly worried now I've bought a suffer.

Sounds as though you've got some play in the bearings. It's easy enough to change them and see, although not as easy as it used to be from what I can tell.

I've asked this before, but never got an answer, so I'll try again. Why did Orange change the pivot bearing design? What was wrong with the old pinch-bolt design? You could knock in new bearings in the time it took to drink a cup of tea. Now it looks as though you have to strip half the bike down!

I'm going to order a set of bearings and go from there.

I take it the play is on the inboard side of the bearing as I can't see anything on the outside face.

Place your finger between the swingarm and downtube and shake the back end. If you don't feel movement the. It's not likely to be the bearings

Legend. Done that and can see the movement as well as feeling it.

Are the bearings from Orange just as good as elsewhere?

I ly used Orabge ones so far myself, seem as good as anything and you'll probably get new screws and caps with them too (not sure why you'd need new caps mind you)

Life time warranty on bearings from Orange , I had mine done for free at the LBS if your the original owner I guess.

Interested to hear how you removed then without removing the swing arm?

Just remove the bearing caps and drift the spacer out with a long 6mm bolt from the drive side and this then moves the swinging arm in a position where the bearings can be removed.

I used a Santa Cruz bearing tool - good idea to protect the paint work with some duct tape or similar.

Going to be 20 quid plus postage for two bearings and two caps I don't need.

Any ideas on where I can get some bearings from cheaper.

Bump for the evening crew.

I find they last throughout the ownership of the bike.

Hora you weirdo how on earth is that helpful ?

Found some on eBay for £12.99 delivered.

[Spunks £40 on stickers before riding the bike...quibbles over the official £20 bearings from Orange, gets cheapest ones possible from eBay!]

😛

Where did you get 40 quid from for the stickers??

Right just to follow up again...

New bearings fitted and play is a lot less now although there is still a bit of knocking.

I've figured it could be the lower shock mount after all as undoing the bolts either side and rocking the wheel and the knocking is worse.

When I stripped the swing arm off the frame I had to disconnect it for the lower shock bolt.

In the Bush on the shock mount there is a shaft that goes through the Bush for the two Allen bolts to do up into.

When I placed the shaft into the lower shock Bush it moves around quite a lot and there is quite a lot of play.

Should this shaft be quite loose at eshoukd it be a snug fit ?

Cheers.

Steve

Sounds like bushing as well then, FWIW - I always find that if I need to replace bearings, a shock bushing will be gone too. Only I won't have noticed the bushing going pearshaped, until I replace the bearings and wonder what that other knocking is.

It's like a litany of swingarm annoyance that happens every 6 months or so.

Is your bearing a good fit in the swing-arm?

I got through 3 sets of bearings in 18 months with persistent problems with play in the swing arm.

Went back under warranty and the 'fix' (bodge?) was to loctite the bearings and put in a new axle (the new axle is an anodised version of the older one). Seems to have worked OK but not an entirely satisfactory solution on a relatively new and expensive bike.

got a year out of my old frame bearings. they were goosed and you couldnt tell they were knackered until i removed the covers and looked.

check them every few months.

the new ones are apparently a much trap

If you loosen shock bolts the shock will always rattle about the place. You need to tighten them up, then stick a finger between the shock and the frame/swingarm and check for play.

On a 2nd hand bike i'd suggest changing to a heavy duty reducer set (if it doesn't already have them) at the same time as you've know idea how much abuse they've taken up to this point, which might see you ripping through bushes pretty quickly

Went back under warranty and the 'fix' (bodge?) was to loctite the bearings

Nothing wrong with using a bearing retainer, you'll have fun when you next go to change them though

I must say, I'm not feeling the love for this new pivot bearing system. Enough to put me off buying an Orange at the moment. The old system worked so well as well.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's not new at all though. Alpine and the DH bikes have used the setup for years

Oh yeah, good point. They always had two systems, but just seem to have gone to the same system for all the new models now. Presumably it must have been better in some way than the pinch bolt setup, but reading these threads it's hard to see in what way.

Legend do you have a link to the correct bits for the lower shock mount kit.

I think it's fitted with the newer type bushes not metal ones.

The shaft that goes through the shock Bush has quite a bit of movement in said Bush when it's off the frame.

I had the pinch-bolt swingarm on mine. It initially needed a pair of bearings about twice a year (riding throughout Winter etc).
Over time I discovered the biggest factor effecting longevity was water/crap getting in there, rather than the "quality" brand of the bearing. The cheapest bearings lasted just fine so long as they were well sealed with bucket-loads of thick calcium based marine grease. It stays put and forms a barrier that muck sits on top of rather than working into.

The shaft (shock bolt) is fine to have play in it. The assembly is held together by being pinched by the frame/swingarm so that the reducer is held in place and the bush pivots around it. I would always swap out the (sacrificial) bush before the reducers and then try the shock bolts if there's still a problem.

The reducers are 22mm wide with 8mm bore. Bush is standard 12.7mm http://www.tftuned.com/heavy-duty-mount-kit-127mm-m8/p2937

Mine is about 6 rides old.
Felt awful after a run down the A470 at BPW.
The bolt on the linkage needed nipping up.
Was fine afterwards, but I was convinced I'd cracked the frame.
(This also acted as my excuse for mincing down, being overtaken by toddlers on Islabikes etc).

Slightly off topic but the Superstar bearing extractors are a relatively cheap way of making the bearing change a lot easier ...

http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/bearing-removal-fitting-tool.htm

Cheers Legend.

So on the TFtuned site do I need a 22mm x 8mm kit or a 44mm x 8mm kit?

Ie is each reducer 22mm or is that 22mm total??

what nick was saying is correct
my 26" pinch bolt type five only needed 1 pr in 4 years and that seems std & pretty fair

after getting hold of the 650b version w/o the pinch bolt design ive gone through 3 prs already---now orange DID change bearing suppliers & im not back on the 4th pr which are from a different source & i dont expect any more problems but the spacers on the new 650b style can creak also which id bloody annoying .

orange make all the frames like this now w/o pinch bolt like they have done on the alpine for a while as thew overall swingarm is stronger-not my words btw.

the most important bit of info is not to get fussed whos bearins i should use i am the uk distributor for skf & i can tell you we do get a small problem with certain apllications but avoid cv and go for ss & pack them with a good quality teflon grease .

if your surname is shaikh and you like branded bs then ill sell you x2 6902 skf bearings for £20.00 which will last no longer than a std ss.

i want the pinch bolt design back

renton - Member
Cheers Legend.
So on the TFtuned site do I need a 22mm x 8mm kit or a 44mm x 8mm kit?
Ie is each reducer 22mm or is that 22mm total??
POSTED 2 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

It's the 22mm ones you need. If you have a look on the site there's a hardware finder which shows how the measurements work

You won't have side to side play in the swingarm from the shock bushings, it'll be up and down.

You can tell this by holding the bike by the saddle, both wheels on the ground, and gently push a little down on the saddle and lift back up - movement is that will tell you if you have a worn bushing.

Side to side play is either your bearings (which you changed) or the wheels bearings. Or a loose 12mm axle. I'm betting it's wheel bearings.

However, the swingarm on the Five29 does flex enough to see it. It shouldn't knock, but it will easily flex.

Rickon I reckon you could be onto something there bud.

Rocking the wheel whilst holding it at the 3 and 9 position gives the same knocking as just rocking the wheel at the top.

It's not the shock Bush.

Presumably it must have been better in some way than the pinch bolt setup....

If I where to hazard a guess, easier/cheaper to produce.

Hora you weirdo how on earth is that helpful ?

How long do they last. ?

FWIW the ones on my 2008 frame are still fine.... 😉

as to the design I would expect a swingarm without the pinch-bolt gap in it to be stronger, or could be made lighter for same strength, than one with, and certainly requires less operations to manufacture so would be cheaper too.

nothing wrong with using loctite on the outside of the bearings to enhance fit if required. it's what loctite 638 or 680 is made for. we live in an imperfect world.

Further update.

The knocking has gone whoop whoop.

Took the rear wheel out and had a look at the axle set up and found the collar that preloads the bearing slightly loose so have tightened it and the knocking has gone.

However, when it's tight the bearings feel a bit rough so I may back it off slightly.

I've got recent bearings in mine which haven't had much use, plus newish long life shock bushings and I've still got play. Mines a 2010 model with the old spacer design.

Any thoughts?