Hi from the Bearing Man

[Bearing Man]

As a relative newbie on this site, I thought I would introduce myself properly and say a bit about what I do and why I did it!
A few months ago I had a crankshaft bearing fail on my Bosch motor. No problem I thought, as it's out of warranty, I'll strip it down and buy a new bearing.

Turned out it wasn't as simple as that! Bosch had manufactured a bearing with a bespoke size that was unavailable anywhere. After spending weeks searching every bearing company I could find (Worldwide!) I still couldn't find the right sizes. So, I had them manufactured.

As I had to buy a 1,000 at a time, I ended up with a few left over. So, I started www.performancelinebearings.com mainly to help others in a similar situation.
I have since gone on to make or source every bearing, O-ring and circlip in these motors and have just started on the Yamaha and Brose system too! Although the Brose main motor bearing is proving particularly difficult!

Although I can service or overhaul these motors, I have also added full how to videos and bearing identifiers to help people who would like do their own bearings.

Basically, I don't believe its right that if you're out of warranty, you have to buy a new £600 motor for the sake of a £20 bearing! I hope my site helps you, and if you have any questions I am happy to answer what I can.

(Some of you may have seen me on here as Haibike rider... yes, I am the same person. But now I am able to tell you about my business and new developments etc.)

 

[Fat Rat]

Hi
Welcome

Good work by the way
It’s great that someone like yourself has gone to the effort of doing this

Keep up the good work

 

[lyme]

Great service and brilliant website, hope it all goes well.

 

[Woosh]

Great video!

 

[JPGiant]

Superb video.
Great to see a proper engineer at work - takes me back to my apprenticeship - good luck for the future.
If the almighty Bosch don't change their ways you'll never be out of business.

 

[wheeliepete]

If the almighty Bosch don't change their ways you'll never be out of business.

I think even if they do, Bearing Man will be fine, as his prices will be well below theirs. I used Bosch cordless power tools for years in my work and the prices of the spare parts to repair them out of warranty were pretty crazy, especially the parts that broke the most.

 

[anotherkiwi]

I think even if they do, Bearing Man will be fine, as his prices will be well below theirs. I used Bosch cordless power tools for years in my work and the prices of the spare parts to repair them out of warranty were pretty crazy, especially the parts that broke the most.

You weren't supposed to notice...

Bearing Man, great idea, I am a big "right to repair" fan which is why I built my own pedelec.

 

[Bearing Man]

Thank you for your support guys, it really helps. Business could definitely be better but we are still investing a huge amount of time effort and of course cash into this. I have just finished a full overhaul video of the Yamaha PW-X motor and will be posting it as soon as possible. I have also done a "How-to" for the Panasonic motor and am currently working on the Brose motors. So, much more to come.

 

[Warwick]

Out of interest, as an Active Line owner, what is the life expectancy of a bearing under normal conditions?

 

[soundwave]

Out of interest, as an Active Line owner, what is the life expectancy of a bearing under normal conditions?

my bike is nearly 4 years old now and there still as good as new as i have clean and greased it from new as there was no bearing cover when they came out.

and i dont ride in the rain if i can help it

 

[Bearing Man]

Out of interest, as an Active Line owner, what is the life expectancy of a bearing under normal conditions?

Good question Warwick, but, what is "normal conditions"? To be honest there are so many variables from road bike to mountain bike. from how you maintain your bike, how you clean your bike etc. etc.

I answer a lot of these questions here.

It's worth a read because you shouldn't be scared of the rain! Or riding through streams and puddles. Bearing life on a mountain bike, used off road, all year round, will come down to maintenance in the end. If you don't lay your bike on its side when you wash it, and don't use a jet washer, that will help. But if you grease your bearings as in the link above, you should expect over 3,000 miles off road and at least 6,000 to 8,000 on road.

You must accept that off road riding is an extremely harsh environment for any bearing, sealed or not. If you have a normal mountain bike you will be replacing headstock, bottom bracket, suspension and wheel bearings on a regular basis. Even if you have an off road enduro motorcycle, you will still be replacing bearings on a regular basis. Well, it's the same for an ebike!

Don't panic though, all ebike motors suffer the same problems, there are just more of some out there than others so at the moment the popular ones are standing out as the bad guys!

 

[soundwave]

you can also use Vaseline on the motor controller board to protect it from shorts from water ect getting in or you can use plasti coat but hard to remove.

to remove the Vaseline just bung it in the dish washer

 

[Denis99]

For me, this thread shows the real longer term cost of running an Mountain ebike.

I had a Bosch powered mountain ebike with the CX performance motor.
Fine for the first 500 miles, and then nothing but trouble.
Error codes, motor cutting out, plenty of distance help from Bosch UK, but the problems never disappeared.

Eventually the bearings rumbled and the manufacturer decided to accept the bike back and give me a replacement bike.

50 miles into its second ride, error codes and motor failed.
Got my money back.

However, I am not convinced that ( from my Bosch experience), that the motors are up to the task of real off road trail centre riding.

A typical bike will need maintenance, headset, bottom brackets chain, cassette etc.
Front and rear suspension is reasonably easy and cheap , Orange 5 is probably the simplest design.

However, eMobile motor bearing strip downs, increased drive chain wear due to the higher torque makes you wonder about the real cost.

Even a road bike looks expensive long term considering a typical road bike can be ridden for many thousands of miles with reasonably minimal maintenance and cost.

And we haven’t even considered the battery losing its capacity over time.

Expensive to buy, and very expensive to run.

On the road, ok, just about justified, off road, no thanks.

 

[soundwave]

For me, this thread shows the real longer term cost of running an Mountain ebike.

I had a Bosch powered mountain ebike with the CX performance motor.
Fine for the first 500 miles, and then nothing but trouble.
Error codes, motor cutting out, plenty of distance help from Bosch UK, but the problems never disappeared.

Eventually the bearings rumbled and the manufacturer decided to accept the bike back and give me a replacement bike.

50 miles into its second ride, error codes and motor failed.
Got my money back.

However, I am not convinced that ( from my Bosch experience), that the motors are up to the task of real off road trail centre riding.

A typical bike will need maintenance, headset, bottom brackets chain, cassette etc.
Front and rear suspension is reasonably easy and cheap , Orange 5 is probably the simplest design.

However, eMobile motor bearing strip downs, increased drive chain wear due to the higher torque makes you wonder about the real cost.

Even a road bike looks expensive long term considering a typical road bike can be ridden for many thousands of miles with reasonably minimal maintenance and cost.

And we haven’t even considered the battery losing its capacity over time.

Expensive to buy, and very expensive to run.

On the road, ok, just about justified, off road, no thanks.

you could buy a factory dh bike that costs 10k plus and still snap it in half on a twig but i have never had a motor problem or error msg.

either way its going to be fkn expensive if you want to ramp the crap out of any bike.

 

[Denis99]

I haven’t ramped the crap out of any bike I have ever owned.

I’m just an ordinary rider, wheels on the ground type.
Never broke a frame, never bust a wheel, worst I have had in nearly 55 years of riding is a broken mech hanger.

 

[soundwave]

well then the motors would have failed anyway as they tend to go around 400-600 miles if there is a problem then after that its the bearings.

 

[Bearing Man]

Update!
Performance Line Bearings started off with the Bosch motor but I have spent the last 6 months investigating, photographing, sourcing and manufacturing the bearings, O-rings, seals and belts for Brose, Yamaha, Impulse and Panasonic ebike motors.
We are adding motors, how to pages, videos and parts every week.
Please let others know that we exist, especially if they are out of warranty and struggling to find what they need or being told they must buy a new motor!

 

[Energizer Bunny]

Hi Bearing Man

Thank-you for offering the bearing kits and the fantastic youtube videos. I think I have purchased from your ebay site:-

heatwave690

Any ways after some help / advice please.

On a second bike I brought with an active line motor the main bearing has disintegrated. The outer race is jammed in the motor cover and the inner race is jammed on the main drive pulley assembly.
Do you have any advice on removing them please?

Additionally, whilst the bike was used by the previous owner with no drive side main bearing there was a lot of play in the pedal axle which has cracked 2 of the torx lugs off the motor cover. The lugs are still present and I planned to repair using JB weld epoxy adhesive. Have you had any success repairing cracked motor cover lugs?

Alternatively do you sell any motor covers your-self from un-repairable drive units?

Thanks
Jason

 

[Bearing Man]

Hi Bearing Man

Thank-you for offering the bearing kits and the fantastic youtube videos. I think I have purchased from your ebay site:-

heatwave690

Any ways after some help / advice please.

On a second bike I brought with an active line motor the main bearing has disintegrated. The outer race is jammed in the motor cover and the inner race is jammed on the main drive pulley assembly.
Do you have any advice on removing them please?

Additionally, whilst the bike was used by the previous owner with no drive side main bearing there was a lot of play in the pedal axle which has cracked 2 of the torx lugs off the motor cover. The lugs are still present and I planned to repair using JB weld epoxy adhesive. Have you had any success repairing cracked motor cover lugs?

Alternatively do you sell any motor covers your-self from un-repairable drive units?

Thanks
Jason

Hi Jason,
If the outer cover is stuck or jammed, you can set up a puller as shown in the photo. (Obviously remove the cover screws and crankshaft circlip first)

Once the main motor bearing is noisy, it is destroying itself. When it collapses the ball bearings come out the bearing and start running in between the cover and the main motor drive gear. The damage is fairly catastrophic. The problem comes when trying to fit the new bearing. It will not seat square, or at the right depth.

As for your broken lugs. I have tried different specialist aluminium adhesives on these, with little success. The torque loading on these lugs is particularly high and with two broken, you stand little chance of fixing them. Don't be tempted to tig weld them with the circuit board attached either.
The good news is that I do have casings and enough second hand parts to get you going again Contact me at peter.collard@performancelinebearings.com

 

[anotherkiwi]

A little off topic or maybe not...

What is a complete Bosch CX performance, brand new with zero km worth with all the bits including 400 Wh battery?