I bought these for a project because they were cheap and seemed like an easy way to modernize an old bike for my gf. They felt a little crunchy so I opened them up to adjust the tension and make sure they were packed with grease. I found that both pedals were not fully packed with bearings on the crank side. I’m planning to just add bearings myself instead of returning them. But is there any reason to do this by design? Am I missing something?
by Ecstatic_Professor55
4 Comments
It’s normal to leave open space in the raceway for the balls to move. Exactly how much space and whether or not that’s too much, I’m not sure.
Usually you leave out 1 ball bearing from the full circumference to allow for grease and some movement. This just isn’t done right.
If you already have the same size ball bearings, then adding 2 or 3 would be more convenient than returning them. If not, put them back together and return them saying they just suck, not that you disassembled them to see why they suck.
looks to me like there’s 1 too many on one side and 1 missing on the other. the general rule of thumb is to put 1 less than as many balls as will fit i.e. if 10 balls fit in the cup you would use 9. if they are the same size ball it might work to just transfer one ball. the crunchiness could be from too many balls too. I’m just guessing here though and I could be missing something too.
You aren’t missing something, the bearings are missing something, specifically a few extra balls. There should be approximately one less than what would pack it tight, but this is way under that.
But I am impressed with the deal you got on these–the fact that they are ball bearings on both ends instead of plain bearings (bushings) is rare at that price point. I might need to buy myself some.