I'm not sure that bearing quality matters much for pivot bearings. In the case of the Hambini videos, he's talking about continuously rotating bearings. MTB pivot bearings never complete a single complete revolution, so the balls inside the race just get to beat themselves into the races, failing from the hammering they're taking. I'm not saying they can be garbage bearings, but rather it's the wrong tool for the job (ball bearings). Automotive control arm bushings are a good example - these seem to be either rubber, where the rotation is taken up by the twisting of the rubber (imagine the balls in a standard bearing replaced by rubber, where the rubber is glued to the inner and outer race. You can turn the inner relative to the outer by flexing the rubber) This design has the advantage of NO sliding surfaces and is completely sealed, but would also flex too much for a bike. In competition applications, these are often replaced with spherical plain bearings. These have a large surface area, but are a bit heavier and have a bit more friction compared to a (\*new\*) ball bearing.
Off road racing trucks are a good comparison I think. A long time ago, I lusted after Camburg's upper control arms for my 2WD Toyota truck, with their Uniball pivots: [https://camburg.com/shop/suspension/susp-control-arms/uniball-uca/camburg-toyota-hilux-05-1-25-performance-uniball-upper-arms/](https://camburg.com/shop/suspension/susp-control-arms/uniball-uca/camburg-toyota-hilux-05-1-25-performance-uniball-upper-arms/)
If there's a place to look where suspension pivots take a beating, off road truck racing might be such a place.
The bearings that seem to take the worst of it are the main pivots near the bottom bracket - whether the design is single pivot, linkage single pivot, Horst, DW link, or VPP. These are basically once-a-season replacements for a lot of riders. I like that Ibis use IGUS bushings in their lower DW link, and that Trek use double-row bearings for their main pivots. I haven't seen much other effort into this by manufacturers, but it might be out there.
Dec. 15, 2021, 4:46 p.m. - benfour
I'm not sure that bearing quality matters much for pivot bearings. In the case of the Hambini videos, he's talking about continuously rotating bearings. MTB pivot bearings never complete a single complete revolution, so the balls inside the race just get to beat themselves into the races, failing from the hammering they're taking. I'm not saying they can be garbage bearings, but rather it's the wrong tool for the job (ball bearings). Automotive control arm bushings are a good example - these seem to be either rubber, where the rotation is taken up by the twisting of the rubber (imagine the balls in a standard bearing replaced by rubber, where the rubber is glued to the inner and outer race. You can turn the inner relative to the outer by flexing the rubber) This design has the advantage of NO sliding surfaces and is completely sealed, but would also flex too much for a bike. In competition applications, these are often replaced with spherical plain bearings. These have a large surface area, but are a bit heavier and have a bit more friction compared to a (\*new\*) ball bearing. Off road racing trucks are a good comparison I think. A long time ago, I lusted after Camburg's upper control arms for my 2WD Toyota truck, with their Uniball pivots: [https://camburg.com/shop/suspension/susp-control-arms/uniball-uca/camburg-toyota-hilux-05-1-25-performance-uniball-upper-arms/](https://camburg.com/shop/suspension/susp-control-arms/uniball-uca/camburg-toyota-hilux-05-1-25-performance-uniball-upper-arms/) If there's a place to look where suspension pivots take a beating, off road truck racing might be such a place. The bearings that seem to take the worst of it are the main pivots near the bottom bracket - whether the design is single pivot, linkage single pivot, Horst, DW link, or VPP. These are basically once-a-season replacements for a lot of riders. I like that Ibis use IGUS bushings in their lower DW link, and that Trek use double-row bearings for their main pivots. I haven't seen much other effort into this by manufacturers, but it might be out there.