Hi, I recently inspected my 2016 speed triple's rear suspension bearings. I found them to be quite dry, containing a dry wax like substance? Nothing like I expected them to be. Movement didn't seam as free as I would have thought it should be, that said its only a pivot. So only has a small movement. The bearing cage, which I would have thought would be metal/plastic, was kind of similar to the wax... a wax cord/fibre material. Anyone see this kinda thing before.
Did you take any pics while it was apart? That sounds a bit strange. I did mine last year (2015 bike) and although the bearings and seals were ok there was bugger all grease in there. Yes the linkage only has a small amount of movement but it’s under a fair bit of strain and needs grease to prevent wear and early failure.
Pics aren’t really clear but I get the idea. What have you done with it? Looks like your best bet would be to change them, could you trust them to be ok even cleaned up and greased?
Seems a lot of manufacturers do the same. It was always the joke that the four main Japanese companies shared a pot of grease and it was luck if your bike was made the week the pot was in the same factory. Even though my last Suzuki was not too bad when my mechanic stripped and re-greased everything it was like I was riding a magic carpet all of a sudden - it made so much difference. I did my SV650 before that myself and also found pretty much no grease and again the ride was transformed after I freed everything off and greased it properly. Annoyingly it's a case of "they're all like that sir".
What you can see in the picture is flakes of what appear to be wax, the bearing race is made of similar. It almost looks like the race is the lubricant? Curiosity got the better of me, so I heated the bearing. Which released the needles, and revealed the race, which the needles were imbedded in. I took this material out, and replaced it with normal grease. This was about six months ago, and the bike hasn't ridden any differently. Just wondering what this material is, think I'll strip it down again. Just to see if all is good.
Bit of an update, I carried out the linkage service on a mates bike. The wax is normally, just not what I would expect a bearing to be lubricated in. Anyway I made a video of the service, in case it could help others.
Good vid. My friend triumph guru clive wood finds many that are bad especially the early types with cast drop links. They are also much harder to do. Did you do the axle as that also need rgular maintainance. Triumph state 12k or 2 years whichever comes 1st
