I can only speak to Transition, the other bikes I've had have not required bearing replacement.
I bought tools from Bearing Pro Tools, two or three blind extractors and several drifts. I think the total for everything I needed was around $70, I was able to buy just the sizes I needed rather than the several hundred for a full set from someone else.
The drifts work fine, the extractors are a pain. There is no flange on them to grab the inner race, so they slip out after a few hammer hits. The first time I removed them, it took me over an hour to get two out, as the stainless bearings had corroded slightly to the aluminum shell due to a lack of prep applied to the original set.
Removal of the non-blind bearings was fine on my bike, although I used a socket to press the bearing into, it sat uneven on the rocker and removed some paint. I replaced them on another bike that was about a year old (mine was 7 months when I first did it), they were seized/corroded so badly that we had to put the entire setup in a vice to press them out. I used to maintain sailboats, mixing stainless and alloy with insufficient grease/anti-seize is a bad combination..
Pressing in went fine, but it requires a careful feel to ensure the bearing isn't slightly pressed in crooked. This is the scariest part of doing it esp. on bikes that don't have the bearings in a link and the bearings are in the frame.
I would have paid around $120 for the proper tools, I think more than that and the value starts to deteriorate. The issue for me is that with the blind pullers, I just couldn't find any that looked worth the investment. They all function roughly the same and seem prone to the same flaws.
March 10, 2020, 10:23 a.m. - Shinook
I can only speak to Transition, the other bikes I've had have not required bearing replacement. I bought tools from Bearing Pro Tools, two or three blind extractors and several drifts. I think the total for everything I needed was around $70, I was able to buy just the sizes I needed rather than the several hundred for a full set from someone else. The drifts work fine, the extractors are a pain. There is no flange on them to grab the inner race, so they slip out after a few hammer hits. The first time I removed them, it took me over an hour to get two out, as the stainless bearings had corroded slightly to the aluminum shell due to a lack of prep applied to the original set. Removal of the non-blind bearings was fine on my bike, although I used a socket to press the bearing into, it sat uneven on the rocker and removed some paint. I replaced them on another bike that was about a year old (mine was 7 months when I first did it), they were seized/corroded so badly that we had to put the entire setup in a vice to press them out. I used to maintain sailboats, mixing stainless and alloy with insufficient grease/anti-seize is a bad combination.. Pressing in went fine, but it requires a careful feel to ensure the bearing isn't slightly pressed in crooked. This is the scariest part of doing it esp. on bikes that don't have the bearings in a link and the bearings are in the frame. I would have paid around $120 for the proper tools, I think more than that and the value starts to deteriorate. The issue for me is that with the blind pullers, I just couldn't find any that looked worth the investment. They all function roughly the same and seem prone to the same flaws.