Wheel spacers.

[Ud_luz]

Anybody ever come up with decent spacers for the fronts and rear?

I'm getting kind of tired of replacing water filled bearings.

[HydroDog]

How about adding a speedi-sleave:

http://www.skf.com/files/344136.pdf

[blitz11]

Wow. Thanks for the tip. Killer product.

[Bailey28]

http://checkpointoff-road.com/store.html

[GMP]

Have your own made from stainless at your favorite machine shop and be done with it. I'm running the same stainless spacers for four years now and my bike has original wheel bearings. As far as the checkpoint spacers, fronts are OK, rears are a joke. What they seem to do to reduce wear is under size the OD so the seal lips will not cut a groove as fast. What this does is greatly compromise the sealing ability as the seal is no longer working as designed.

Les made up a limited amount of stainless spacers, but the cost of them at the demand quantity a few years back was too high. Maybe not though when you consider its a permanent fix.

[Ud_luz]

Originally Posted by GMP

Have your own made from stainless at your favorite machine shop and be done with it.

Right, my favorite machine shops around here want a small fortune.

I'm putting new front and rears in three or four times a year from water and rust.

[GMP]

Four sets? Thats absurd. Do you pressure wash? Its been water world around here this year and I'm still fine.

I have a small local shop here that does walk in jobs. Its a small run CNC shop but the guy does the prototypes/one offs manually. To dupe a set of spacers cost me $60 last time. Probably more now, but worth every penny. All I do is pull the wheels every few rides to clean and regrease the seals. I also pack a lot of grease between the seal and bearing. If the seal/spacer fit remains tight due to a good hard spacer, no dirt gets under the lips, and everything lasts a long time.

[Ud_luz]

Originally Posted by GMP

Four sets? Thats absurd. Do you pressure wash? Its been water world around here this year and I'm still fine.

I have a small local shop here that does walk in jobs. Its a small run CNC shop but the guy does the prototypes/one offs manually. To dupe a set of spacers cost me $60 last time. Probably more now, but worth every penny. All I do is pull the wheels every few rides to clean and regrease the seals. I also pack a lot of grease between the seal and bearing. If the seal/spacer fit remains tight due to a good hard spacer, no dirt gets under the lips, and everything lasts a long time.

Flint sand in red clay. Eats spacers, chains and sprockets like they are made out of butter. I laugh at the Ironman sprockets guaranteed for a year. I'd LOVE to get a year out of a sprocket or chain.

I'm also replacing lower fork bushings every 50 hours or so because it gets into the forks too and eats them up. I just did my forks yesterday after 4 trips and poured mud out of them. I kind of envy the desert guys in this regard.

I NEVER pressure wash the bike. That's just asking for trouble.

I've tried completely repacking the bearings and the void with waterproof grease and that doesn't work either. On the forks Seal Savers don't work too well either. One thing that helps is to pull the springs off the seals and wipers, cut 1/4" off them and reinstall. Unfortunately that increases sticktion. The other trick is to take some of the small starter string used in weedeaters and small leaf blowers, wrap it around the fork tube with waterproof grease and push the wipers back on.

Red clay also stains your gear, plastics and aluminum.

[GMP]

Sounds like you have an extreme condition to deal with. Thats too bad. Do you go through conntershaft seals/collars as well?

The greased cord trick under the fork wiper is a good, been doing that for years. Fifty hrs on bushings, wow. The teflon is gone when they are pulled? Check your uppers for anodizing wear.

[Ud_luz]

Originally Posted by GMP

Sounds like you have an extreme condition to deal with. Thats too bad. Do you go through conntershaft seals/collars as well?

The greased cord trick under the fork wiper is a good, been doing that for years. Fifty hrs on bushings, wow. The teflon is gone when they are pulled? Check your uppers for anodizing wear.

The fork tubes still look perfect with no obvious tube wear which surprises me. The teflon is history on the lowers. I now use Silkolene synthetic oil @ 7.5wt.

I've replaced the countershaft seal and collar only once. Unlike the KTM it hasn't been too much of an issue but then again I don't care that much if it leaks a bit, I change the fluid often. I use GM AutoTrak II for tranny oil running a Z-Start.