Suzuki 2 Strokes

What's better; tapered roller bearings or the old style ball bearings? In my case it's for my 1972 Suzuki GT750. But I've also aquired a '75 T500 that has a 'detent' when the handlebars are pointed straight ahead.

Do roller bearings give tighter handling? Last longer? (slightly differing dimensions notwithstanding!)

What have fellows found?

Olaf

Wherever possible, I always prefer to use TRBs. Everyone will say they improve the "feel" but I suspect that a lot of people fit them to bikes where the existing roller bearings are past their best...so they would feel better! I think if you had one bike with new roller bearings and one with TRBs, both set up correctly, you may struggle to notice any difference in ride quality but I find that TRBs wear better and are easier to adjust and require adjustment less regularly.

Never done it myself but I have heard you have to remove some material from the headstock to get the tapered bearings to fit.

yes you have to trim the tubes to make them fit.
bb's are just as good but don't forget dont load all the bearings in to fill up the space.
leave one out thats how Suzuki did it in the 70's.

I replaced the cup'an cone ball bearings with a set of Taper Rollers on my resto T500. I sourced them from Crooks Suzuki and they fitted with no modifications needed.

Cheers Geoff

well thats good Geoff. I had to emery cloth mine to fit.

johnakay wrote:well thats good Geoff. I had to emery cloth mine to fit.

I probably have a bigger hammer, John