Enduro Needle Bearing Install Fox Shocks

My stock (2011 Giant Anthem X 29er 3) DU bushing in my Fox Float RP2 Boostvalve lasted 2.5 seasons which isn't too bad I guess.  I've heard of serious all-mountain riders blowing through one or two DU bushings in a season with all that rock bashing and riding drops they do.

I'd say about 70% of my riding over the past two seasons has consisted of trails that have a lot of granite rock with a fair amount of pushing my suspension parts through full range.  I'm a cross country racer with bit of an indulgence for mild all-mountain style riding.

Two pics from the Fox website: Top, typical DU bushing set up, bottom; the new fox low friction bushings (now standard).

The Enduro needle bearing has needle bearings within a DU bushing sleeve with robust seals on either side: 

I purchased the Real World Cycling bearing press tools to make the job easy.  You can use a bench vice and match up the appropriate socket sizes from your socket wrench set as well, but the Real World Cycling tools are only $35.00 and you have them forever.  When your friends see your cool new needle bearings they can borrow your press tool to do theirs.

A trip to the hardware store and spending $2.00 bought me my DIY high-tech bearing press made from a 6 inch bolt, washers, and nuts.  In the pic below I'm using the blue pilot tool to push out the old DU bushing.  It took a bit of turning force to crack it and pushed out easy after that.

Here's the removed DU bushing pressed out and captured by the tool.

A quick clean of the shock eye.

Loading the Enduro needle bearing onto the needle bearing pilot tool which ensures perfect alignment.

The green tool is idiot proof with clear instructions for which end goes where..

Needle bearing installed

Putting in the other bits.. Mine came with three different sizes of sleeves to account for normal variances found.  The "++" size (recommended place to start) fit perfectly with no binding or knocking, and smooth rotation.

One more sleeve..

Ready to put the seals on

Double sided seals seem pretty well built. Lightly grease before sliding on.  Seals  come in different colours to match or clash however you like.  I like matching.

Use a torque wrench and tighten to factory spec.  

For my 2011 Anthem X 29er the spec is 8.8 - 10.7 Nm for the upper shock mount

My old bushing was toast and had developed a knock that was easily produced by lifting the bike by the seat.  No knock after Enduro needle bearing install.

I decided on the Enduro needle bearing after reading a lot of reviews.  Many people report better small bump compliance and a need to increase shock air pressure due to more easily flowing through shock travel.

I haven't ridden the rocks yet.  I've done one ride on mostly hard pack single track with lots of bumpy roots in some sections.  My shock appears to be traveling through the same range it usually does on this trail, but I did notice an edge taken off small bumps.  Right away I noticed greatly reduced friction when loading the suspension by pressing down on the seat, cycling the shock.  The first tiny bit of travel before hitting where your sag is set moves very freely and it's very easy to feel the change in shock resistance between the top of the stroke and where the sag setting activates the shock.

Apparently the new low friction bushings from Fox are also very slick and supposed to last a long time.  I don't know which system will be better.  Probably can't go wrong with either one.

I decided on the needle bearing because it looks like it can take more punishment.  I'll ride the Enduro bearing for the rest of this season then try the Fox low friction bushing next season.  I'll post my comparison findings here.

With my early findings I can recommend the Enduro needle bearing.  It does what it claims to do; increases small bump compliance, I didn't notice an earth shattering difference and so far haven't needed to increase my shock air pressure to compensate.  That might change once I challenge the shock more on the rocks.

With the Real World Cycling bearing tools the re & re procedure was drop dead easy and fast. I didn't have to remove the shock from my bike. Less than 10 minutes.  Could probably do it in 5 minutes now that I've done it once.

SPD Cleats review: BBB vs Shimano

When my Shimano cleats wore out I thought I'd save a few bucks and buy the BBB cleats.. Here's how that turned out:

New Shimano SH51 on top used BBB Click & Go on bottom

Used BBB left New Shimano right

Shimano SM SH51 4 deg float  $20.00 - $30.00 CDN

BBB Click & Go BPD-01 4 deg float   $15.00 - $25.00 CDN

Both are made from hardend Cro-Mo steel.

As my Shimano cleats started to wear, releasing my foot from the pedal became a challenge.  I fell over sideways a few times as I couldn't release in time.  Smashed my knee on a rock leaving a nice bulge of swolleness that felt great the rest of the ride.

I should have bought new cleats when I first noticed the increased difficulty in clicking out instead of trying to squeeze every last kilometre out of this wear-replace part.

The shop was out of the Shimano cleats and I didn't want to wait a week for new ones to come in on order.. memories of the knee-rock relationship provoked me into an impulse buy for the BBB cleats that were in stock.

Bonus, the BBB cleats were around $5.00 cheaper than the Shimano and they looked about the same.  Of course they looked about the same.. they're for the same pedal silly.

New cleats feel so good.  Smooooth float, crisp engagement and easy release.  Instead of cursing my hard to release pedals, I reconciled our differences, let the knee thing go and started the SPD romance again.

About a month later my foot released from the pedal on a pedal strike.  Pedal strikes happen when riding rocky trails, you try to avoid it but, meh.. it happens.  I usually don't experience a cleat release on pedal strikes though.  I didn't think much of it and left it as a one time thing.

Over the next month pedal strikes with a foot flying off the pedal became so prevalent I was back to cursing my Shimano pedals.

I'm currently using the M540, considered the workhorse of the Shimano pedal line up.  Not overly heavy or remarkably light (346g), they are very durable and quite inexpensive ($90) compared to XT ($150, 343g)  and XTR ($250, 310g).  With sealed bearings these pedals are a true forgetaboutit part.  They last through years of abuse and still work great under all conditions except mud.  The pedals fail miserably in mud.  But this is a cleat review not a pedal review so back the cleats..

The worst was when I had a right then left foot strike - foot fly-off in the middle of a rock garden.  That was fun. Both feet detached bashing through rocks.  I got my feet back in and made it through, but I had a few choice words for my pedals.

My cleats were only a couple months old so I didn't consider cleat wear to be the issue.  I'm used to getting two or three seasons out of SPD cleats.. Shimano cleats that is.  After a mucky ride I was cleaning crap out from my cleats and noticed the cleats looked pretty trashed.

I was surprised.  Maybe they wore fast because I've been riding rocky trails more than before.  Hopping off for unridable sections means more time wearing your cleat on a hard surface.

No, that can't be it because this year I can actually ride more technical rock than walk.  A couple years ago when I walked a lot of rock trails this cleat on rock wear idea would have made sense.  Even when I was walking rock more, I had never experienced cleat wear within a month and a half that resulted pedal strike shoe releases.

BBB Click & Go cleats wear a heck of a lot faster than Shimano SM SH51 cleats.

When my Shimano cleats wore, release became more difficult.

When the BBB cleats wore, pedal strike cleat release became very prevalent.

I think if you're riding mostly dirt trails and are not doing much hike a bike over rocks either one of these cleats should work just fine and last a reasonable amount of time.

With the experience that I had though, I won't be buying the BBB cleats again.

I bought new Shimano cleats which restored smooth float and click in click out ease exactly the same way the new BBB's did.  When new both cleats feel great and work about the same.

The pedal strike cleat release disappeared with the new Shimano cleats.

Looking closely at the cleats there are some minor dimensional differences between the two cleats.  I imagine this changes the cleat - pedal interface dynamic as the cleat wears with wear-performance characteristics being different between the two cleats.

In terms of overal durability the Shimano cleats win hands down.  The $5.00 savings on the BBB purchase isn't a savings at all as it looks like the Shimano cleats last at least twice as long.

Both function equally when not worn and perform poorly when worn.

The Shimano SM SH51 cleats are the clear winner as they far out last the BBB's.

I might switch brands for pedals this year to favor better mud performance.  The new Look S-Track look interesting..

http://www.bikerumor.com/2012/09/01/new-look-s-track-mtb-pedals-replaces-quartz/