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Switch pivot bearings

43K views 141 replies 46 participants last post by  mypuppynow 
#1 ·
Mine are toast after 2.5 months.
 

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#64 ·
Hi there, I finally changed all 8 bearings of the bike (I had to buy the complete kit, no warranty, I just dont want to lose more time, store to yeti - yeti to store mails ) have to say I was amazed the bearings just work for 7 months, of the 8 bearings I totally fried 4, 2 had a little problems and the other 2 where working fine, but well I changed all 8. I wish this new bearings work for more time, because dont want to change bearings every 7 months !!!

I will post later if this bearings where better than the last ones.
 
#65 ·
it's going to be interesting to me to see how long they last for me too, once I get the bike.

my home area is not known for being dry and dusty, there will be moisture and mud. I'm accustomed to the bearing wear pattern of my old bike (e.g. very low, last 3+ years for the main pivot and 6+ for the rest - Titus Quasi-Moto) so we'll see.

I definitely feel like I need to order the spare set as soon as I get my new bike though.
 
#66 ·
Large Bearings That House The Pivot

Hi,

Had my SB66 for 3 moths now & have devoloped creaking on strip down i found that the bearings inside the pivot were fine, however the large ones that sit in the frame that house the switch pivot have failed.

Has anyone else had the same problem?

Thanks
 
#67 ·
Just a thought

When I replaced the original switch pivot bearings with the correct ones I noticed that it would be possible to run this area 'wet' (ie fill the houseing containing the switch pivot with oil.). When I looked at the picture of the mud encrusted bearing from the previous post it made me think about it again. I'm not sure how effective the large 'x'ring seals would be at containing the oil but long term I think it may be better to have a bit of oil seaping out, than it is to have mud and water going in the oppposite direction ?

PS. I tend to run the bottom brackets of my bikes wet (inside the plastic tube) once they have lost their newnes and it seems to work, freeing up stiff bearings and extending their life a bit.
 
#68 ·
Bring on bearing replacements under warranty, Yeti.

Other companies are doing it - Santa cruz = lifetime warranty/free replacement. Orange = 5 year warranty on pivot bearings. but for yeti, 6 months in and you have to buy a new set yourself.

small company should equal better, individual customer care. Unfortunately it feels like we're left here holding the can on these bearings and lack of thought re - insulating them from wet, muddy conditions.

How is e.g. this upper pivot bearing supposed to last?
 

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#97 ·
Bring on bearing replacements under warranty, Yeti.

Other companies are doing it - Santa cruz = lifetime warranty/free replacement. Orange = 5 year warranty on pivot bearings. but for yeti, 6 months in and you have to buy a new set yourself.

small company should equal better, individual customer care. Unfortunately it feels like we're left here holding the can on these bearings and lack of thought re - insulating them from wet, muddy conditions.

How is e.g. this upper pivot bearing supposed to last?
I had mine since November, and one of my upper bearings is stuck. STUCK. Well, checked the manual, and it seems it is not as per specification either. It is speced as an angular contact (7903 2RS MAX), but is something else (6903 VRS). Definitely a warranty claim but what will be faster? Ordering a kit from Enduro Fork seals or wait for my LBS to get their feet out their ass and get me some real ones. I think I will try both..
 
#69 ·
doesn't exactly make it easy to sell the frame onto a friend does it? great ride, perfect aggressive geometry, climbs like a goat and looks beautiful. Oh, and you'll need to strip it down on a weekly basis and get yourself hundreds of dollars worth of bearings a year to keep it running. nice job!
 
#70 ·
Cracked SB66 Rear triangle -- am i the first one ?

Hi Guys,

Talking on the SB 66 Defects....
has any one cracked their SB 66 Rear triangle or am I the first one?

I have the bike for only 2 months, did 520km of All mountain rides .
Jump maximum 1.5 meter & my wight is 95KG, I could not believe it when i saw the cracked rear triangle.

I love the bike, they go up and down as promised i do with them all what i could not do with my previous bike (GT Force 2.0) . I am just concerned now as i read your thread about faulty parts, and i know the history of the 575 rear triangle.
I am not sure if i should keep the bike or not !?

I could not upload an image as i am new. you can see it here :
i45.tinypic.com/szbhn4.jpg
or in my user gallery
 
#72 ·
Hi Guys,

Talking on the SB 66 Defects....
has any one cracked their SB 66 Rear triangle or am I the first one?

I have the bike for only 2 months, did 520km of All mountain rides .
Jump maximum 1.5 meter & my wight is 95KG, I could not believe it when i saw the cracked rear triangle.

I love the bike, they go up and down as promised i do with them all what i could not do with my previous bike (GT Force 2.0) . I am just concerned now as i read your thread about faulty parts, and i know the history of the 575 rear triangle.
I am not sure if i should keep the bike or not !?

I could not upload an image as i am new. you can see it here :
i45.tinypic.com/szbhn4.jpg
or in my user gallery
My guess is that you simply have a defective weld that has gone bad because the crack is right along the root of the weld. Hopefully this isn't a high stress point and we don't see any others.

Yeti should take care of you and there's no reason that you shouldn't ride the new rear triangle just as hard.
 
#77 ·
I just looked again and mine was on the left side of the weld, Yeti handled the issue very quickly and to my satisfaction. Excellent Yeti customer service. It was the LBS I had to process the warranty through that was a pain in the ass. $90 to process a warranty change out a swingarm that I could have done myself.:rolleyes: That and the bike came back with the gears out of adjustment and loose pivots. This is exactly why I work on my own bike stuff.

 
#85 ·
Thanks for the cheer-up as I love the bike (minus a lot of chain slap in the rough that can be easily remedied with clutch derailleur). Just a little bummed cause I went thru all of this with previous bike and three frames in less in 2 yrs. Was hoping the Yeti was going to be a lot more durable for me for this class of bike. Yes, it is still a very fun bike to ride and I am not ready to fully give up on it yet. Just want something that I can depend to get a solid season out of, if not two.
 
#82 ·
And i thought i was the first one in the world to crack the SB 66 :p
i wonder how many already did brake the rear triangle on this pretty new model.
hope it was a defective weld, and not something that gonna repeat itself.

I bought my bike from official yeti dealer, and after only 3 days was called in to replace the broken triangle, after they send the necessary documentation and photos to yeti.
this is an excellent service.
 
#88 ·
I just put my SB66 together on April. First ride was on April 29 and I put a little over 90 miles and can hear a cracking sound coming from the link area. Its a 2012 model it came with a paint chip on the head tube. Looks like the primer or first coat of paint was chipped and than it was painted over. It will be so disappointing to have a bad set of bearings on that frame. Maybe an Ibis Mojo HD would had been a better choice.
 
#89 · (Edited)
Thiago
sorry to hear about head tube paint. When I demoed the bike, I knew the paint was not the best part of it even though mine still looks great.
As for the creaks, I found that I need to apply a drop of lube to the bearing every 1-2 rides.
Than it disapears but will reapear if I don't lube again
never ridden an HD but the Mojo is a nice bike just not even close to the SB imo
 
#95 ·
Broken drive side chainstay?

TB,

Did you happen to notice any cracks in the stay before it went? I just installed some cranks not too long ago before my chain stay broke at exact same spot as yours. I clean and go through my bike fairly thoroughly before each ride and didn't notice any cracks at all. My gut tells me the stay just went at this spot without much warning. Similar experience to what you had? I am patiently waiting for new stay at this time as it is suppose to be in the mail. Happy Yeti is taking care of me for sure, but feels like forever and I am borrowing someone else's bike in the meantime...just not the same.

Thx,
JG
 
#96 ·
TB,

Did you happen to notice any cracks in the stay before it went? I just installed some cranks not too long ago before my chain stay broke at exact same spot as yours. I clean and go through my bike fairly thoroughly before each ride and didn't notice any cracks at all. My gut tells me the stay just went at this spot without much warning. Similar experience to what you had? I am patiently waiting for new stay at this time as it is suppose to be in the mail. Happy Yeti is taking care of me for sure, but feels like forever and I am borrowing someone else's bike in the meantime...just not the same.

Thx,
JG
No I didn't. I was cleaning my bike and trying to diagnose creaks when I found it. I probably wouldn't have noticed it otherwise. To me it looks like it was a bad weld. As I mentioned before the replacement swingarm has been fine and I'm riding about 3 times a week with technical rocky trail.
 
#99 ·
Bogus! This bike has been high on my radar, but between the creaky bearings and now broken swingarms it seems yeti has some bugs to iron out. Plain & simple this is to heavy of a frame to break in 6 months, not to mention hoped it would be latterly stiffer. I feel for ya jgusta as I am going through the banshee warranty headaches currently and don't want to take a chance at buying into a brand that may have issues. Not sure what to get to replace my banshee now.......
 
#100 · (Edited)
That stinks, hope Banshee gets you sorted, They took good care or me in the past and hope they do the same for you. Their bushing pivot system is quite the headache for sure, nothing close to Turner reliability, function and ease of use/maintenance and made me want to go back to sealed bearings.

FWIW, never had any problems with bearings/creaks on the SB-66 and made sure I had the upgraded ("proper") bearings installed before leaving the shop with new bike last early winter. It was bit of a surprise for the rearend to go like it did, especially in less than 6 months (the biggest bummer was that it happened in an Enduro pre-race run last weekend). But, got new rear in 4 days from Yeti and installed courtesy of LBS. Apparently my first rear swingarm didn't have a serial number on it, indicating that it was part of a first frame batch or something, according to LBS/Yeti, and the new/replacement swingarm should last longer for whatever reason? The true test will be time of course. Other than that, I love how this bike rides. Fun and efficient like the Banshee, but a little plusher in it's travel and climbs tech better due to no pedal kickback and much better small bump and square edge hit performance. Feels a lot plusher on the trail with air shock than the Banshee did for sure.

It seems like every new bike purchase is a gamble these days as far as reliability of frames goes. But, don't think you could go wrong with a IBIS HD or possibly a Knolly Chilcotin for longer durability for similar class of bike. I test rode a Chili last week here in town, felt good, very active FSR like, but pedals a little better than FSR. Think I like the Switch-link feel some better though. The Knolly looks pretty solid and don't hear of too many people breaking them. The IBIS HD would more than likely be the only carbon AM bike I would want to get as well. NomadC is a solid constructed frame as well for carbon, but don't like VPP all that much (rode like crap with DHX air at least when I demo'ed at Sandy last year) with similar build/specs as my Banshee Rune at the time.

Good luck with your bike.

"Not sure what to get to replace my banshee now......"

Oh, if you are looking for a replacement for a Spitfire, I think the Turner 5.5 Spot would be the way to go for solid, long lasting trail bike frame with excellent bushings/pivots. If wanting a slacker trail bike, just put in a head angle set in there and at $1500-1600 for 2011 frames on closeout, American made, lifetime warranty, that's tough to beat, IMO. I don't think the upgraded 142x12mm for 2012 Spots vs a 135x10mm is worth the upgrade in cost as compared to 2011's. Just put a solid Hadley 135x10mm thru bolt axle in and is just about as stiff as a 142x12 QR maxle
 
#101 ·
A LOT of SB-66-es have been sold, and there is a known issue that the bearings on one batch were sub spec. There are a few complaints here in this thread, and I honestly do not think there are too many more in the non-forum world.

Problems with forums is that you always hear the complaints, but you do not necessarily hear the guys having no troubles and their product goes on and on and on without failing.

So I am confident that when i upgrade the bearings, my bike will last "forever" until they are worn out - which happens.

I will go for either SKF or Enduros for my part. The former because they are the top of the line and I am from Norway and SKF is Swedish - not far from the source, less carbon footprint, less waiting. :) More cash :(

Anyway: the tech bulletin above only mentions the smaller switch bearings, but actually all bearings on mine were not according to the spec/manual:
Large switch bearing 1 : 6808VRS
Large switch bearing 2: 6809VRS
Smaller switch bearngs: 63892VRS
Upper shock link bearings: 6903VRSAGA
Lower shock link bearings: 6902VRS (Those I actually had some replacements, but they were smooth as a baby's bottom still.)

So a minor thing overlooked by QA, and some of us have problems.
 
#107 ·
Upper shock link bearings: 6903VRSAGA
Lower shock link bearings: 6902VRS
Hi, I am glad you brought this is up. I totally agree with you. Its a great ride but the issues seem to be a constant freak out. I just wish you can bypass the dealer and walk into Yeti for these issues. Now, I am worried about the life of my rear triangle (no serial) and getting charged extra by a dealer for calling into yeti for the warranty process.

How did you pull/install the upper shock link bearings? Also, which Enduro bearings are the correct replacement for them? I cannot fit my bearing pullers in there. Thanks in advance.

As for the paint issue, I have applied to Paint Protection Film (3M/Venture) to the frame immediately after receiving it and its been working very well.
 
#104 ·
I suppose you'll mainly see complaints as people look for soluitons to issues they are having with a newly designed 1st gen bike.
Ultimately the feedback should result in a better bike for the 2nd gen etc so despite the negativity
its often actually usefull. I'm sure there are 66 owners who have had issues and dont post here also... so it works both ways.

Personally its a good all round bike but it does have some issues IMHO.
I've had no issues so far with the switch bearing - but its eating shock bushings
and the paint is as soft as butter. I ride rocky terrain and its looking a bit sad already compared
to my black 08 575. It can get a bit creaky through the linkage and needs regular maintenance
to keep it running sweetly (definitely need a torque wrench for those linkage bolts).

Great bike but needs some TLC, well certainly the 2011s do no idea about the 2012s.
 
#105 ·
Well, I have 20-25 hours on my SB-66a and finally took it apart to check the bearings because the back end was feeling really bad. I already knew that my Switch bearings weren't all that good when I took it apart to replace the shock bushings a few months ago but I sure didn't expect to find what I found. The Switch bearings weren't much worse than before but all four upper link bearings were seized right up! I baby my bikes, haven't ridden this bike through the winter and only lever use the low pressure Shower setting on my hose nozzle when cleaning it (with a bucket and a brush).
Needless to say, I'm not at all impressed with the bearing life on my SB-66. I guess it is time to shop for some decent bearings since Yeti is absolutely hosing us with their $120 bearing kit.
Not impressed Yeti!:madmax:
 
#110 ·
Follow-up: I contacted Jenson USA (where I bought my frame) looking for bearing help at least with the small switch bearings which were not to the correct specification. Jenson contacted Yeti and was told not to send me the correct bearings and that I should buy a bearing kit for $120! Of course I wasn't happy with that answer especially considering that Yeti published that bulletin stating that they had used the incorrect bearings on some frames (mine included). I contacted Yeti directly using the e-mail address on the bulletin and was told that they could not send me bearings and that I should contact Jenson. I e-mailed them back to tell that I had already contacted Jenson and they would not send me any of the bearings. It certainly looks like Yeti will not honor their bulletin.

I'm definitely not supporting Yeti or Jenson by buying an overpriced bearing kit to replace the bearings that were incorrectly specified by Yeti. Even though it may seem like a small issue this is the second time that Yeti has been very difficult to deal with (the first was dealing with them on an incorrectly pressed in bearing/damaged swingarm on my new, out of box 575 frame).

I'm buying a new 29er at the end of this month and was considering an SB95 but considering this poor level of support I'll be looking elsewhere.
 
#108 ·
SB66 my take

Hi All

I just test rode a SB66 today and was very impressed with the fit and ride. Am currently looking to replace my Intense 6.6 and am looking to address the flexy rear end and the pedal feed back , which the Yeti certainly did. Was blowing through the shock travel too easily (common complaint) but doesn't concern me as plan to build it with a CCDBair if I get one. Is at the top of my list at the moment, but all these bearing issues and frame brakes is a bit worrying , but here is my take on the issues.

Bearings are a crittical part of any full suspension mountain bike so why can't the bike manufactures put some decent quaility and correctly speced units in. They are a very small part of the cost of building a frame but can cause so much grief. In my opinion Santa cruz are the only company that actually seemed to listen to the rider feed back after there first bad issues and put some proper resources into coming up with a industry leading design using the right type of bearing (and seals) for the loads incounted.
One of the issues I see with alot of the bearings being used is that they are of the enduro brand. These are not bad bearings in general and are one of the only companies making MAX style bearings in the sizes bikes require, but unfortunately their seals suck. My intense 6.6 has suffered from bearing issues with the enduro bearings and in the end I modified a set of SKF bearings to MAX style bearings so i new I had the best bearings I could and it certainly made a massive difference to the life span of the bearings. The bottom ones still need to be stripped out and regreased once a year but atleast theyre not stuffed to the point of needing replacement every 6 months.

As for the rear triangle breaks, when I picked the bike up for the test ride on thursday the one comment the very knowlegable bike mechanic made was to point out this area as a possible concern of his for frame breaks due to the design. He commented to me as to wondering if the casting/machined link was surface welded or some how inserted at this point as it would be a high stress area.
As for people commenting on the bad welding. In general if the weld looks good and hasen't been smoothed off to hide a bad technique it will probably be a good weld on a high quality frame like this. The problem is that when you weld aluminium or steel with a tig or mig technique you actually weaken the material either side of the weld due to crystalization of the surrounding material from the heat. This is partially why the frames then need to be heat treated to try and normalize this material and lessen the effect. Unfortunately it will never be as strong as the original material, or the weld for that mattter and this is why you often see cracks appear at high stress zones either side of welds.

Anyway just my two cents and hopefully might help clear up a bit of confusion.

Just hope the Carbon SB66 is built to NomadC levels of strength, no worries then and no weld stress areas to worry about !
 
#114 ·
Going on two months now and no bearings from Jenson and/or Yeti!

Well I've been extremely patient with these guys and nothing seems to be getting done. It looks like I'll have to pay to get some of the correct bearings which really sucks since Yeti put out the bulletin about the bearings.

Considering that this is my second bit of awful service from Yeti (575 frame also) I'll be stripping the parts off of the frame, rebuilding the bearings then selling it. I really don't want to have to deal with Yeti and/or Jenson on any further issues especially if the frame ends up cracking like some of the others.
 
#120 ·
Well I've been extremely patient with these guys and nothing seems to be getting done. It looks like I'll have to pay to get some of the correct bearings which really sucks since Yeti put out the bulletin about the bearings.

Considering that this is my second bit of awful service from Yeti (575 frame also) I'll be stripping the parts off of the frame, rebuilding the bearings then selling it. I really don't want to have to deal with Yeti and/or Jenson on any further issues especially if the frame ends up cracking like some of the others.
In reading all of these complaints it does seem Yeti is having some first year issues with the SB series. I'm sure they expected some issues to show up after getting the bikes in the hands of the general public. Hopefully those will be addressed and corrected in short manner.
To hold Yeti accountable for Jenson's issue is concerning though. Yes Yeti should not have told Jenson to ask their customer to buy a replacement bearing kit to fix the problem. A dealer the size of Jenson should have asked Yeti, and Yeti should have supplied replacement bearings for them to have on hand so these issues would have a quick solution and response. 1 kit for every SB series bike they sold to Jenson. It's not hard to do.
In my opinion this is what it all comes down to. Don't buy bikes from Jenson. They are great to buy discounted parts and accessories, but not for buying bikes. Obviously they do not care to address your issue with Yeti, and I would bet money that their in house customer service person just thought is was easier for you to go on Yeti's website and buy a new bearing kit than to deal with it themselves. Buying big ticket items on the interweb is not something I choose to do for this reason.
 
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