front end neck bearings

[brewerbear]

In reading Hanlons book I recall that the engineers tried some type of bearing that turned out to be completely unsatisfactory for the front end, and at the last moment had to revert to old technology to get the bike to market. My question is this, Why not the same bearing top and bottom?? the bottom bearing seems to be a type of wheel bearing that seems out of place in an area that takes a lot of direct side loading. and the top bearing is of conventional tapered style that goes back to the invention of motorcycles and bicycles. Im about ready to take my Deadwood down for the winter and black powder coat the rear leg of the front end, as the chrome has surrendered and left. When I put it back together any ideas of replacing the bottom bearing with a tapered unit or leave it the same??

[Jumper]

I believe there is an upgrade to taper bearings top and bottom. Might have to machine the top washer down .040 to get a proper pre-load. I think Kenny Bretz has done this mod. Not sure what the results were, but should work. I do not have a P/N for the upper taper bearing. Might contact one of the shops and find out!
Jumper

[brewerbear]

Thanks Jumper for the info, I'll do a little more research and let you know if it works. Again many thanks
Dan

[Traveller]

It works great!

The front end wobble/head shake problem has been on our to-do list for years and we've finally had time to chase it down. As you mentioned this was an unresolved issue at the factory but, Dan Hanlon never forgot about it and set about finding a replacement tapered bearing that fits nicely, although it does require some machining of the lock nut for clearance. We have installed it on several bikes and Dan installed it on Ken Bretz's s/n 799 during R&D. In all cases the results have been excellent.

We tried this modification on a bike that had a terrible problem with head shake since new (15 years). It had gotten so bad that it just wasn't any fun to ride. We tried everything we could think of over all these years and were never able to make a permanent repair, until now. The tapered bearing cured the problem and now it rides smooth and handles great!
This is the fix that we've been looking for.

Give Marty a call, she has them in stock with modified lock nuts.

Ride Safe,
Jamie
Atlantic E-H

[Mad River MoCo]

It works great!

The front end wobble/head shake problem has been on our to-do list for years and we've finally had time to chase it down. As you mentioned this was an unresolved issue at the factory but, Dan Hanlon never forgot about it and set about finding a replacement tapered bearing that fits nicely, although it does require some machining of the lock nut for clearance. We have installed it on several bikes and Dan installed it on Ken Bretz's s/n 799 during R&D. In all cases the results have been excellent.

We tried this modification on a bike that had a terrible problem with head shake since new (15 years). It had gotten so bad that it just wasn't any fun to ride. We tried everything we could think of over all these years and were never able to make a permanent repair, until now. The tapered bearing cured the problem and now it rides smooth and handles great!
This is the fix that we've been looking for.

Give Marty a call, she has them in stock with modified lock nuts.

Ride Safe,
Jamie
Atlantic E-H

This right here is why I love my X...

Thank you