Originally Posted by
Semple
This depends on your maintenance routine; whether or not you use water or harsh cleaners when you clean your car, etc. A guy who uses a toothbrush and air(carefully) to clean his buggy is going to get a longer life out of his chassis bearings than a guy who is using Simple Green w/water, break cleaner, denatured alcohol, etc. If you disassemble after every race, brush your bearings clean and re-oil with proper bearing oil through the shield, your bearings could conceivably last indefinitely.
+1 In between race events if you tear down your rig and only use water + cleaning solution on the plastic/aluminum parts you'll get longer life out of the bearings.
I use a brush to dust off the bearings before checking them. If they spin free I cleam them w/ brake cleaner and re-oil, it then goes into my 'old/reuse' container. If I notice it binding and/or notchy it goes into my denatured alcholol jar with the hopes of salvaging it. BTW I have yet to salvage any so I'm not sure why I keep doing it. In most cases I end up reusing about 1/2 of the bearings after each race. The old reused bearings only go on the wheel hubs. Drivetrain will get new bearing after every race event.
You can pickup an entire set of the econo bearing set from Boca Bearings for about $24. In most cases I can get 2 race events before opening up a new pack. The ceramic orange seals are $300. I did the math and I chose to go with econo bearings and the cleaning/change out routine I stated above.