Genuine Honda stem bearings or All Balls

[gumby302ho]

 My issue is aquiring genuine honda parts for honda XR. Partszilla is not shipping to Ontario at the moment. My stem bearings have finally failed after 20 years which is fantastic long life, I would rather put back in OEM parts but they are so hard to aquire where I live. I could easily order All Balls for cheap from FortNine and I am now 53 years old. My gut says go through the hassle of finding OEM which were on back order and a 2 hr drive and do the repair BUT my age and how long I will be able to ride this bike will not be another 20 years. I heard the dust seals from AllBalls were not on par with honda OEM but I could have them here inside a week. OEM or ALLBalls, What would you do?

[red]

My issue is aquiring genuine honda parts for honda XR.  I would rather put back in OEM parts. I could easily order All Balls for cheap from FortNine and I am now 53 years old. My gut says go through the hassle of finding OEM which were on back order and a 2 hr drive and do the repair  What would you do?

Gumby,

I am now over 70, and I have no plans to retire the FJ, or any decent bike.  In 20 years, they may discover the Fountain of Youth, realistically meaning some sort of medical procedure anyway.  The youthful looks of some older celebrities make me think that may be almost real now.

That aside, without knowing what your bike has now for steering head bearings, I would recommend tapered roller bearings there, if at all possible.  Timken and SKF are among the best names, and typically they can match the sizes of races that you have, by the millimeters.  It may take some research, and help from their Tech Support folks, but I believe you will be pleased with the results.  Use the best grease, and the best grease seals available to you.  Mail-order may be the key, there.  Partzilla may be more familiar to you, but there is a lot of competition for their niche, on the Internet.  You may even become the roller-bearing guru here, with what you learn.

Happy hunting!
.

[fj1289]

Go with what you can get your hands on easily and ride the hell out of it! 

If you have to replace them in a few (or even a couple) years, then so be it.  I'll bet replacing them again will take less time than the driving you are thinking about doing to get OEM parts.   By the time they need to be replaced, they may be easier to find anyway. 

Go for it!

[Firehawk068]

Go with the All-Balls!

I have them in the steering stems of both my FJ1200 and my Super Tenere 1200.
Have not seen any reason to think they are an inferior product.

Install them and don't even think twice about it.

Get out and ride!   

[gumby302ho]

My issue is aquiring genuine honda parts for honda XR.  I would rather put back in OEM parts. I could easily order All Balls for cheap from FortNine and I am now 53 years old. My gut says go through the hassle of finding OEM which were on back order and a 2 hr drive and do the repair  What would you do?

Gumby,

I am now over 70, and I have no plans to retire the FJ, or any decent bike.  In 20 years, they may discover the Fountain of Youth, realistically meaning some sort of medical procedure anyway.  The youthful looks of some older celebrities make me think that may be almost real now.

That aside, without knowing what your bike has now for steering head bearings, I would recommend tapered roller bearings there, if at all possible.  Timken and SKF are among the best names, and typically they can match the sizes of races that you have, by the millimeters.  It may take some research, and help from their Tech Support folks, but I believe you will be pleased with the results.  Use the best grease, and the best grease seals available to you.  Mail-order may be the key, there.  Partzilla may be more familiar to you, but there is a lot of competition for their niche, on the Internet.  You may even become the roller-bearing guru here, with what you learn.

Happy hunting!
.
Well I can only prey I can make it to 70 Red and still ride on top of that. My modded 2000 XR 650L is a bone crusher type of bike lol Seat height alone gives 6 footers a hard time. Nasty unforgiving pleasure. Dirt riding is a whole other ball game, ask the giant killer, we both have serious injuries from crashes but live an learn as they say.

[ribbert]

There is no such thing as OEM bearings. Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki etc do not make bearings, or for that matter, seals or chains or most other parts, they don't even bother to stamp there own name on them. Vehicle manufacturers traditionally make engines and bodies and the hundreds of other parts that make up the finished bike are sourced from third party manufacturers, quality not necessarily the goal, cost definitely comes into it.

Take for example the drive chain that came new with your FJ. It was not available retail and was at best medium quality, much the same for tyres and disc pads. Many other brands suffered bearing, oil seal and gasket failures. I have worked for brands where it was accepted as the norm that after market (brand name) replacements were better than OEM. Some OEM parts were so bad we replaced them pre-emptively.

I'm not a particular fan of All Balls because they're not manufacturers which means their suppliers could change from one order to the next and from who knows where. However, in this instance, with the type of load on head stem bearings they should be fine.

OEM mechanical parts being better quality, is for the most part a myth - and four times the price!.

As Alan said, just do it and go riding, don't over think it.

Noel

[giantkiller]

I have used All Ball's in lots of my ATV's. I ride retarded hard on ATV's.  Usually have to wait for the younger guys at intersections. With all the mud, sand, ice, snow, open water, then -20f temperatures you ride through with ATV's.  I'm am always amazed that I  don't have to replace all the  bearings after every ride. I can't remember having had to  replace them  again. I use them because they are readily available. And affordable.

Of course I usually break something  major on my ATV's  after a few thousand hours. And have to replace them.  With something faster.

That being said I don't think I learned much from all my  accidents. ( I've had so many, I have to  sit and think about it to remember them all)  Except to  live and ride as much as you can!!!  You don't know how much of precious life you have left. No matter what age you are.

[Millietant]

My wife used to work for an American owned company, in the UK (Federal Mogul) - back in the 1990's and early 2000's - they manufactured piston rings and gidgeon pins for Ford, Peugeot, Citroen, Vauxhall/Opel and Nissan.

Over her time working there (and dealing with both production line and product quality/technical issues), she came to the conclusion that we should only buy Nissan cars for our own use - such was the difference in specification requirements, quality criteria, tolerances and care and management once the customer received their ring and pin kits. Nisan were head and shoulders above the rest.

Peugeot had the worst controls and, not surprisingly, the most hitches - their ordering was inaccurate and their records abysmal in comparison to Nissan.

But, essentially, all of those car "manufacturers" just shipped in specialist parts made under subcontract/supply agreements and assembled by them into their vehicles."Aftermarket" kits were exactly the same products just packaged differently.

As Noel says, OEM doesn't really mean the name on the bike/car - it actually means the company that manufactured the parts - and these days, sometimes identifying that is a big job on its own.

[gumby302ho]

There is no such thing as OEM bearings. Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki etc do not make bearings, or for that matter, seals or chains or most other parts, they don't even bother to stamp there own name on them. Vehicle manufacturers traditionally make engines and bodies and the hundreds of other parts that make up the finished bike are sourced from third party manufacturers, quality not necessarily the goal, cost definitely comes into it.

Take for example the drive chain that came new with your FJ. It was not available retail and was at best medium quality, much the same for tyres and disc pads. Many other brands suffered bearing, oil seal and gasket failures. I have worked for brands where it was accepted as the norm that after market (brand name) replacements were better than OEM. Some OEM parts were so bad we replaced them pre-emptively.

I'm not a particular fan of All Balls because they're not manufacturers which means their suppliers could change from one order to the next and from who knows where. However, in this instance, with the type of load on head stem bearings they should be fine.

OEM mechanical parts being better quality, is for the most part a myth - and four times the price!.

As Alan said, just do it and go riding, don't over think it.

Noel


    I know what you are saying Noel and I understand that if I pulled a bearing apart I am not going to find Mr.Honda or Mr. Yam stamped someplace, but one cannot over look OEM, they had there go to suppliers that in tern have a name for quality. SKF, timcon, FAG. Can we even say that, FAG were good bearings. I trust Mr Honda not to sell me a piece of crap more then a company saying there's are as good as OEM, in some cases I am sure in the end it was the same darn supplier, hence research but I wont slam OEM, buyer beware. I find the saying usually true for me in my life " Ya get what you paid for"   Cheers Mate I know its summer down there! Ride safe

[Troyskie]

I've just replaced some head stem bearings in my FJ. I went with All Balls as they came with the weather seal and OEM does not.
I'm not sure about the Honda ones, but the seals are super important if they have them.