[AEyogi]

Greetings,
I was educated in the Suspension forum that it is necessary, or at lease beneficial, to add grease to new cartridge bearings for the pivots to protect them from water. I have then discovered that new bearings have very little grease inside. I am now eyeing my wheels, and wondering if I should pack the hub bearings with grease as well. My question is whether too much grease, or too thick of a grease, in the hub bearings could cause problems? Pivot bearings wiggle back and forth a little, but wheels have to spin at 100rmp or whatever.
Thank you.

 

[J.B. Weld]

New sealed cartridge bearings seem like they have plenty of grease to me and for sure are very water resistant, I wouldn't mess with them.

 

[Jayem]

It depends...it just depends on how much grease is in there, not all bearings are the same. You want to go faster and use less watts? A little less grease will do that or thinner grease. You want more water-resistance? Fully pack those bearings with a good waterproof grease. You don't know unless you open them up unfortunately. We repack bearings here for the cold, so they keep turning at -40....or at least, kinda keep turning. It absolutely will increase resistance to fully pack bearings...but it's also not going to cause any giant loss of efficiency unless we are talking about competitive races on the road.

 

[eshew]

I do it, suspension bearings 100% filled. Wheel bearings 50-75%.

You certainly don't need to, but after having bearings die an early death due to capillary action pulling water into the bearings, it's a regular maintenance item.

Even if you over fill, grease will eventually make it's way out. So you'll gain back some efficiency over time and keep the any void between the seal and the bearing filled with grease.

I do ride in the rain and mud quite frequently, I'm sure in drier climates it's not as beneficial.

Enduro bearings do seam to have more grease than a standard machine bearing.

 

[Dougal]

You don't want to go past 50% fill on a bearing that rotates constantly. The extra grease adds a lot of drag as it pumps around and in cold conditions it can pop seals off.

Stock is about 20-30% fill. Filling one side better will get you to about 50%.

For suspension and headset you can pack them full.

 

[AEyogi]

Thank you for the help everyone.