Synergyseals swingarm/linkage bush kit

[swazi_matt]

I have thought about this, but actually figured that as there are not many other reviews out on the web about this product it would help to have it here.

The kit sells for about $60 which you may consider to be a bargain as it replaces the linkage, lower shock and swingarm bearings (most would supply this as three seperate kits), but do not compare this to all balls or pivotworks kits who charge about that for each kit, but they come complete with bearings, o-rings and shaft/bushing. The synergyseals kit comes with (bearing replacement) bushes and o-rings so you will need to reuse your inner shaft.

The Bushes that replace the bearings are some sort of fibrous material with a teflon (or similar) lining on the inside and these replace the bearings.

Fitting now bear in mind i do not have any fancy bearing presses but have managed very successfully on my previous bikes to replace these bearings using a bench vise and two sockets. This is where we have a slight problem with the SS bushes, unlike bearings they do not assist with realigning themselves if you start slightly off square. They tend to keep going skew and the outer part gets a bit damaged, so you need to be really careful and check all the time (this is more of an issue with the part under the swingarm). Once they are in and test fitted with the old bushes the fit is nice and smooth.

Problems with the lower shock bearing. Here i think they have the size wrong (and also did not include any replacement o-rings for this size) because before i fitted the bush (which is smaller than all the others) i tried to fit the inner bush and i could not get it in by hand so i pressed the bush onto the shaft (thinking: that is a tight fit!)and then pressed the bush into the linkage thinking that maybe it will be tight but ok when all is fitted. so then i fitted just the linkageto the lower shock and tightened it up to see if it would turn and it did but i figured that it was so tight it would end up affecting the handling of the bike (like a binding bearing would) so i ditched that one and cleaned and regreased the old bearing and put it back.

The next issue i had was that they did not include enough bushes for the whole linkage and swingarm, the kit is one bush short, i think they forgot that one part of the linkage has three bearings in it and not only 2 like everywhere else, so what to do here? Well not to worry i just discovered that one of the collared bushes on the swingarm had a crack in the collar so i had to go and get a swingarm bearing kit anyway (for about $60) and now have a few spare bushes.

I have not had a chance to really test the setup but will comment here once i have ridden it a bit more.

As a side note i decided to replace the bearings because i could feel a bit of play in the swingarm and since these were still 2010 oem bearings i figured that they needed to be replaced, as it turns out the play was from part of the linkage being a bit loose. And GG really have this linkage system well sorted, none of the bearings were dry, and had only slight play (probably normal) i prbably could have just replaced the grease (some of it did smell a bit off) and carried on, but fortunately i did remove the swingarm because i think a few more months and i would have really battled to get it out again

So that is my current review. Would i buy them again, the only thing that would make me buy them again is if they proove to last a long time or if i was on a fdifferent bike that did not use the same o-ring sealing system that gg does

[bkwdc]

Appreciated. Thanks.

[PEB]

Thanks for the review. I have the seals and wiper kit for my 50mm forks and really like it. I also tried the fork bushing kit but the bushings were not wide enough. I had considered trying the swingarm kit but will give them some more time to get it sorted out.

[modette]

I hope you let them know besides us so they can correct the issue and improve on their product.

[gasgasman]

I installed the swingarm and link bushings several months ago. I did not do the lower shock bushing as it was still fresh.

A few weeks ago I proceded to install the lower shock bushing.
The lower shock bearing was also the wrong size on the kit I installed.
I did exacty what you did. I could not even push down on the bike.

Misses:
You have to use your worn out sleeves from your old bearings.
Excessive drag in the bell crank bushings.

BTW. The Motion Pro bearing installer works well. Self aligns the bushings while installing. The rear bushing on the swingarm will require some rigging .

[Eric K]

I am curious to read how Synergy Seals responds about the mis-fit of the lower shock bushing.

He used to post on this site.

[Synergy-Seals]

Hi there everyone. I have read this post and really hoped someone would contact me directly so I may make things right before a post was written about their mishaps.
I love to hear from our customers.....good or bad comments.
If you all can imagine it is sometimes difficult to keep up with suspension MFG for they change their components frequently so one year the shock bearing is one size and the next another size.
I have many sizes available and I may have put the wrong bushing in the kit.....work with me here....my ultimate goal is to provide better tougher longer lasting components that perform better at better pricing. It would be easy for me to get oem stuff from china or india, but why would I copy everyone else and in the end give less of a product.
I am a one man show that really really loves motorcycles and really really cares about my customers.

Soooo please call me. Rob
209-938-9726

[Fred1956]

Originally Posted by Synergy-Seals

Hi there everyone. I have read this post and really hoped someone would contact me directly so I may make things right before a post was written about their mishaps.
I love to hear from our customers.....good or bad comments.
If you all can imagine it is sometimes difficult to keep up with suspension MFG for they change their components frequently so one year the shock bearing is one size and the next another size.
I have many sizes available and I may have put the wrong bushing in the kit.....work with me here....my ultimate goal is to provide better tougher longer lasting components that perform better at better pricing. It would be easy for me to get oem stuff from china or india, but why would I copy everyone else and in the end give less of a product.
I am a one man show that really really loves motorcycles and really really cares about my customers.

Soooo please call me. Rob
209-938-9726

Customer service on aisle 1 !

[Stoby]

Has this been sorted out? I'd like to try this if it works .

[Synergy-Seals]

The linkave kit fits great but the ohlins bushing still needs to be sorted. The sachs shock bushing fits great.