Bearing recommendation

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mattr
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by mattr

The issue with bearings is the distribution chain and the volume discounts.

I can get the same bearing from two shops not even a km apart. One buys direct from the manufacturer or from their sales agent, probably a million bearings a week. I pay about 2-3€.
The other shop is a bike shop, that buys from a bike manufacturer, that buys from a supplier of hubs, who buys from their local importer, who buy from the manufacturer, still a million bearings a week though. Costs me 9-10€, comes in a special packet with the hub manufacturers name plastered all over it.

Guess where i buy my bearings.

(sometimes they are different bearings with a special grease or a different level of fill, or changed tolerances. But at a guess, it will be less than 2% of hubs doing this. And usually it'll make no difference at all.)

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pdlpsher1
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by pdlpsher1

mattr wrote:The issue with bearings is the distribution chain and the volume discounts.

I can get the same bearing from two shops not even a km apart. One buys direct from the manufacturer or from their sales agent, probably a million bearings a week. I pay about 2-3€.
The other shop is a bike shop, that buys from a bike manufacturer, that buys from a supplier of hubs, who buys from their local importer, who buy from the manufacturer, still a million bearings a week though. Costs me 9-10€, comes in a special packet with the hub manufacturers name plastered all over it.

Guess where i buy my bearings.

(sometimes they are different bearings with a special grease or a different level of fill, or changed tolerances. But at a guess, it will be less than 2% of hubs doing this. And usually it'll make no difference at all.)
Because bicycle bearings are not used elsewhere except on bicycles, I doubt anyone is buying more bicycle bearings than Hambini. However I understand your point that Hambini doesn’t buy a big number as a whole as compared to some industrial suppliers.


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mattr
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by mattr

pdlpsher1 wrote:
Fri Feb 09, 2018 3:58 am
Because bicycle bearings are not used elsewhere except on bicycles, I doubt anyone is buying more bicycle bearings than Hambini. However I understand your point that Hambini doesn’t buy a big number as a whole as compared to some industrial suppliers.
Bicycle bearings? LOL. No such thing. Pretty much every bearing on a bicycle is straight out of a catalogue and available to buy from any bearing supplier. (with the exception of some headset bearings and a very small number of oddballs.)

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by CrankAddictsRich

mattr wrote:
Fri Feb 09, 2018 8:55 am
Bicycle bearings? LOL. No such thing. Pretty much every bearing on a bicycle is straight out of a catalogue and available to buy from any bearing supplier. (with the exception of some headset bearings and a very small number of oddballs.)
Exactly... I'd even be willing to wager that most of the component manufacturers build their products around the bearings that are already available on the market, in terms of sizes.... they're not designing the parts and then requesting the bearing companies make specific sizes to their specs.

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pdlpsher1
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by pdlpsher1

CrankAddictsRich wrote:
Fri Feb 09, 2018 7:46 pm
mattr wrote:
Fri Feb 09, 2018 8:55 am
Bicycle bearings? LOL. No such thing. Pretty much every bearing on a bicycle is straight out of a catalogue and available to buy from any bearing supplier. (with the exception of some headset bearings and a very small number of oddballs.)
Exactly... I'd even be willing to wager that most of the component manufacturers build their products around the bearings that are already available on the market, in terms of sizes.... they're not designing the parts and then requesting the bearing companies make specific sizes to their specs.
Some bearing sizes that are very common on bicycles are seldom used in industrial applications. If you have done an online search you will know what I mean. If it's really that easy then everyone will be buying their bicycle bearings from large industrial suppliers. I have tried to buy common bicycle bearings from large industrial suppliers and they are not available for sale. So that's why I bought mine from Hambini.

If you have favorite bearing supplier I'd like to know about it. Please post it here.

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by CrankAddictsRich

pdlpsher1 wrote:
Fri Feb 09, 2018 10:21 pm

Some bearing sizes that are very common on bicycles are seldom used in industrial applications. If you have done an online search you will know what I mean. If it's really that easy then everyone will be buying their bicycle bearings from large industrial suppliers. I have tried to buy common bicycle bearings from large industrial suppliers and they are not available for sale. So that's why I bought mine from Hambini.

If you have favorite bearing supplier I'd like to know about it. Please post it here.
It's clear that you've completely missed the point of Hambini's bearing posts and why he sells the bearings that he does sell.

I started this thread and was not very schooled, but after investigating the posts made by other members, I became aware of Hambini. If you watch his videos, the whole point that he's trying to make is that SO many of the bicycle manufacturers have simply taken bearings and repackaged them, perhaps with their own mix of lube/grease, etc. Quite literally, the bearings he sells are exactly what you're claiming them not to be, bearings from large industrial suppliers... No one is knocking him... he's not over-charging. He's down the homework and found the bearings that are common in the bicycle world and he's only marking them up slightly.

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pdlpsher1
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by pdlpsher1

I know bicycle bearings are made by large bearing companies. I’m merely making a statement that bicycle bearings are hard to find because they are mostly used on bicycles only. And that’s why Hambini came to existence. I know about the bicycle bearing brands such as Ceramicpeed and Enduro. I won’t buy them because they are overpriced.

I got my NTN bearings from Hambini today. The bearings in my Fulcrum Quattro Carbons are staring to go out. I just replaced the front wheel bearings and I’ll be changing the rear ones next.


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mattr
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by mattr

You're looking at the wrong industries then, or the wrong bearing suppliers.

Or you've bought one of the oddball hubs

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Hellgate
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by Hellgate

Try www.vxb.com

I've used them on both bicycle, motorcycle and auto projects. They carry pretty much any type of bearing, bushing you could possibly need.

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CrankAddictsRich
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by CrankAddictsRich

mattr wrote:
Sat Feb 10, 2018 8:05 am
You're looking at the wrong industries then, or the wrong bearing suppliers.

Or you've bought one of the oddball hubs
Except he doesn't have oddball bearings... he said he bought NTN's from Hambini. NTN is one of the mega industrial bearing suppliers. They literally makes thousands of different bearings of ALL applications. They are not a boutique cycling bearing maker.

mattr
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by mattr

*I* know that.
So why does he think that bicycle bearings are hard to come by. Or on anyway special?

One of life's mysteries.

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pdlpsher1
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by pdlpsher1

mattr wrote:
Sat Feb 10, 2018 9:29 pm
*I* know that.
So why does he think that bicycle bearings are hard to come by. Or on anyway special?

One of life's mysteries.
I have 6803s and 6903's. Can you show me where you buy your bearings from? I'm looking for the NTN brand. They are a very large bearing company.

hambini
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by hambini

To clear a few things up.

- The majority of bike bearings are 6000 bearings which are standard bearings. You can buy them from any industrial outlet. There are some sizes that are a non standard size (not listed by ISO, JIS, DIN) that are generally only found on bikes - these are not made by NTN/SKF etc
- I can't compete with any industrial supplier because I simply don't buy enough bearings - the bike market is a fraction of the car market and that's where NTN/SKF/NSK supply thousands per day.
- The background of where I came from was I made bottom brackets that fixed various issues on bikes. They were supplied to the local bike shop who then told their distributor and I supplied them (in the UK). The distributor effectively asked me to engineer them a bottom bracket that would make up for even slacker manufacturing tolerances, I refused and then decided to supply Hambini BB's directly from the internet. I did a video showing how to replace the videos in Zipp wheels and lots of people enquired about the source of the bearings, it went from there.

The only comment I would make regarding bearing prices is with regards to fakes. I get lots of people emailing me telling me they can get bearings from supplier XYZ for half my listed price and ask for a discount. I bought from supplier XYZ and they turned out to be fake. The packaging looks legit and the markings look legit but if you spin them in your hand, it's easy to spot the difference. *I am not saying that any of the suppliers in this thread are selling fakes*.

I get my bearings directly from SKF/NTN etc to avoid the issue of fakes.

Hambini
Hambini Aeronautical Engineer, Polluting YouTube since 2016 - views expressed are my own...

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mattr
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by mattr

pdlpsher1 wrote:
Sun Feb 11, 2018 4:13 am
I have 6803s and 6903's. Can you show me where you buy your bearings from? I'm looking for the NTN brand. They are a very large bearing company.
A bearing supplier. When i lived in the UK, everywhere i've worked has had a *huge* engineering base. Both massive multinationals and high tech industries plus the huge network of specialists and small precision/toolmakers/prototype workshops that are built up around them. Christ, even as far back as my Uni town had two industrial bearing factories.
All using standard bearings, either in their products, or the machines they use to make their products. 6000 series are everywhere as they have such a useful range of speeds/loads/sizes.
So most bearing suppliers trade counter would either have them in stock, or be able to order from another store in the chain at a fairly reasonable price. Or an equivalent (size/tolerance/grease fill/whatever).
I've even worked at places where i could literally go down to stores and take a handful off the shelf as they are using so many that it's not worth keeping track of them. I suspect they've put a stop to that by now!
Current location is not very many km from SKF HQ, so i used to be able to buy their top spec bearings direct from their trade counter. Which has now closed. (sad face)

Always always set up a trade account if you can. Used to get at least 30% discount.

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