MadMike
Moderator
FEAR THE BLACK FLAG!!!!!!!!
Posts: 6579
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posted August 04, 2003 03:25 PM
ZX12R RC Comp Users. Important Information!!
I just wanted to let everyone using RC Components Rims about a very serious and potentially dangerous flaw in matching the left axel collet to the cush drive bearing! Well last week I received my ceramic wheel bearings and had them put in. while putting the rim on I heard a slight pop sound? spun the rim and everything was fine, when I got to the track on Saturday morning and unloaded the bike everything seemed fine, warmed it up riding around the pits a little and everything was fine, Well on my first pass of the day, I launched and felt the chain click a couple of times, then the bike just felt like a slug going down the track. At the trailer, I noticed the cushdrive was almost completely out of the rim and had ground about a 1/4 of an inch into the swing arm. Upon removal of the rim the entire bearing was completely trashed. And the cush drive was a complete loss. I left and headed to "DWB"'s house to work on it and borrow his wheel if possible. I started evaluating what could have happened (I have to do this at work if we have something fail) as I picked and sorted through what was left, I started comparing it to the OEM wheel, it was obvious the bearing had just failed, but why? Everyone that I spoke to about it felt that the bearing was installed incorrectly, but I checked it out very very carefully before hand so I did not believe that to be true. And then I started lining up the parts on the axle and I saw it! While looking at the OEM cushdrive and the RC drive I noticed the bearings were different. The OEM drive has a bearing that is open and then a sleeve pressed into for the axel to slide through. Where in turn the collet is cut out to hit the bearing and not hit the sleeve on the inside. well on the RC cush drive it uses a standard bearing that goes right up to the axel. So when you put the axel spacer/collet next to the bearing it is barely pressing on the inner portion of the bearing, where it should be totally riding on that surface. Also the outer diam. of the collet is applying pressure to the balls of the wheel bearing. Which I assume is what cracked my ceramic bearings which in turn failed on the launch. I am having a friend of mine build a new wheel spacer that will match up correct, and I am in no way bashing RC Rims, I love them and once this is fixed will be using them for quite a while. This is just a very dangerous situation, IMHO, and I wanted to let anyone that had a set on their 12 to at least take a look and make sure you don't have any wear on your cushdrive bearing. I will post some pictures tonight.
Mad Mike
   
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