Not a technical question... Bearings.

[Boris Bajic]

This is not a technical sort of a super-whizzbang-seeker -of-Divine-wisdom sort of question and I do not want to know about microns of extruded telonite sulphate, so I am posting it here and not in the technical bit.

As follows:

For decades I've been replacing and adjusting wheel barings and headsets.

I've done lots and lots, on bicycles and motorcycles, with balls, needle rollers and... No, just those two.

Sometimes it works a treat at the first time of asking and sometimes I'm cursing and pinching fingers and generally getting it serially wrong for ages before I achieve the right amount of roll (or turn) with the right amount of absence of wobble or similar.

I have no idea what the 'magic formula' is for these things. I know when it's right, but I have no idea what it is I do differently between the right and the wrong.

Am I alone in occasionally feeling quite baffled by head and wheel bearings and occasionally finding it all as easy as closing a sock drawer?

If there is a 'magic method', what is it?

Am I just a Luddite with occasional moments of good fortune?

Is this something that every three-year-old gets right every time and I am just weird?

 

[VamP]

I have no idea, I get my three year old to sort bearings out for me.

 

[Cyclopathic]

I'm the same. I've done it loads of times. Sometimes it just seems to work pretty well as expected. I fiddle, I adjust to what seems like the right amount with the right amount of load and it all falls into place and I believe myself to be the bearing god. I believe that I have finally cracked some arcane magic trick and can class myself as a true artisan. Other times I fck around for ages, think I've got it right, Tighten it all off and it's nowhere near. All tight and graunchy or as loose as (add metaphor to suit). Or I cheat sometimes and if I've done all I can and it still does up loose I just get two whacking spanners and tighten the whole lot up until it stops wobbling without bothering to finesse the adjusting nuts.
I've watched countless dmonstrations on yourtube and they all seem to happily whack the job out perfectly in about 30 seconds. It's a mystery and no mistake.

 

[Fnaar]

I've watched countless dmonstrations on yourtube and they all seem to happily whack the job out perfectly in about 30 seconds.

I've seen that too, but on a different sort of website.

 

[Pumpkin the robot]

Am I just a Luddite with occasional moments of good fortune?

This

 

[Cyclopathic]

I've seen that too, but on a different sort of website.

Absolutely loving your work here on cyclechat.

 

[mad despot]

This

Excellent avatar!

 

[Ningishzidda]

Its a black art.
The real magic is compensating for QR compression.