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Hello All.
I'm looking to replace all of the bearings on the back of the bike, as in SwingArm, Linkage and Bottom Shock Bearing.

The poll question is, Which one would you fit for preference
1) OEM
2) AllBalls
3) Pivotworks

Pros/Cons and personal experiences would be good ;)

Cheers, Ben

Alot of people say AllBalls are crap, and while I've personally had good experience with them, most agree you can't go wrong with OEM or PW.

All Balls got me through the summer. No problems yet!!!!

I hate All Balls, never tried their main bearings but have tried their wheel bearings and neck bearings, I was not impressed.

So I would say Pivot works, but again it is hard to go wrong with OEM.

I replaced mine with OEM this winter (swingarm, shock and linkage )
Even if I had bad experience with the allball crank bearing, their front wheel bearing were ok for me.

There is a quote of CC about "cheap bearings"

canyncarvr wrote:
Do NOT put in any Moose/MSR/AllBall substitute. THEY are completely worthless PsOS!

all ball wheel bearing seem to hold up but i'm not happy about their linkage and swingarm bearings.i carefully fitted the bearings that sit in the swingarm and connect to the rear of the dog bones.the bush was difficult to fit and wouldn't turn.i had the exact same bearing left over from a previous rebuild and so tried it.worked perfectly.can only guess at poor quality as i used care when fitting.

think i'll go OE next time.

ps. i wouldn't consider for a moment using all balls main bearings especially when branded bearings and OE seals work out cheaper.

I usually use OEM bearings, but I've used a lot of Pivot Works bearings too.
I have never used All Balls and don't plan to. I've heard too many horror stories about them.

The Allballs wheel bearings that I tried felt rough out of the package and didn't last.

The neck bearings were cheap POS, that actually had a plastic cage instead of metal and the seal wouldn't fit the steering stem properly.

Both bearings sets were for a 1994 RM125, if it matters.

So I guess I would have to agree with canyncarvr.

Used PivotWorks in mine. No problems yet.

I think you need to look at AllBalls on a case by case basis to see what bearings they are using for each application.

It is a long story, but I had to split the cases again on my son's KX 65 after just rebuilding the entire engine. The bearings that came with the Wiseco bottom end kit were Koyo, which I understand are EOM for this bike.

I found that the AllBalls crank bearings/seal kit used Koyo for this bike as well.

I like OEM, especially for linkage bearings.

the guy at the bearing shop already told me koyo were cheap Chinese bearings... !?!?

I just use OEM... they lasted this long! Can't say that about any others...

JoKDX220r wrote:the guy at the bearing shop already told me koyo were cheap Chinese bearings... !?!?

They are definitely not a Chinese company. Time will tell how they hold up.