Suspension bearing removal and insertion tools for Giant Trace Advanced 29er

Suspension bearing tools

Bearings were getting a little crunchy on my Trance 29er so it was time to strip it down and replace them.

In the past on my aluminium frames I've used a combination of sockets and pipe and tubing offcuts to press bearings in and out but the Trance Advanced rear triangle and rocker are carbon fibre so pressing on and supporting things with metal just felt wrong.  As a result, I decided to make some tools from PE100 (a type of HDPE) that would make the job easier and not damage the frame.

In total, three sets of bearing tools were required because of the three (four actually) different types of bearings used in the Maestro suspension setup. To complicate matters, the 'organic' shapes of the swingarm and rocker around the bearings meant that it wasn't possible to support the part all around as the bearing was pressed out.

For each size of bearing, three parts were required:

  • bearing removal driver: this part drives the bearing out;
  • press support: this is the piece that sits below the bearing as it's pressed out.  It does three things - supports the part containing the bearing; catches the bearing once pressed out; and provides a guide hole for the bearing driver.
  • bearing insertion driver: this parts drives the new bearing back into the part.  It's got a boss that locates the bearing and then a raised edge that makes sure as the bearing is pressed back in force is only exerted on the outer race of the bearing.

Related articles:

Rear hub bearing sizes

I like to keep at least one set of replacement bearings on hand for every hub that I have.  For this purpose, I've prepared the table below which lists the bearing sizes for all of the hubs ...

Front hub bearing sizes

I like to keep at least one set of replacement bearings on hand for every hub that I have.  For this purpose, I've prepared the table below which lists the bearing sizes for all of the hubs ...

XTools Bicycle Toolkit

This has been a great toolkit. Cost around $50 and its got almost everything you need for total bike maintenance.

DT Swiss 240s rear hub tools

DT Swiss promote their 240s rear hub as a tool-less design. Not sure how the justify that claim when to replace all of the bearings you really need the ratchet removal tool as a bare minimum. In reality ...

Viper 24" Full Suspension MTB

This is what AUD$260 delivered from Chain Reaction Cycles gets you - a 13kg full suspension kids bike:

26" XS Full Suspension Kids Bike

Frame

Content-type: text/html Error
Sorry, the application you are using has encountered an error.

Please click on this link to report the error: REPORT ERROR