FOX Foat X2 - Spherical Bearings???

AndreD19

Hi friends

I have a FOX Float X2 shock and would like to replace the standard bushings for Spherical Plain Bearings.
Has anyone ever done this or know how to do so?

Thank you for your help

rockmonkeysc

It's not worth it. I tried them with my Cane Creek DB Inline and they made no noticeable difference. They also wore quite fast.

The Rookie

I have Spherical bearings in mine, but then it's only sized for them and I can't fit plain.

Ridden weekly and 2 years on they are still in perfect working order.

AndreD19

RockmonkeySC wrote:

It's not worth it. I tried them with my Cane Creek DB Inline and they made no noticeable difference. They also wore quite fast.

Unfortunately in my situation I have to switch to spherical bearings, as the shock's plane of actuation changes with compression/rebound.

Did you replace them yourself ? I'm concerned that the eyelet tolerances are not suited for spherical plain bearing.

poah

what bike is it and are you sure you mean spherical bearings?

one of these

AndreD19

POAH wrote:

what bike is it and are you sure you mean spherical bearings?

one of these

That is exactly what mean. They're not meant to be used on a bike, but instead on a Formula rececar.
We have used Öhlins TTX25 MkII in the past (which do come with spherical plain bearings) but I've decided to change into something lighter (mostly for the air spring). The main concern is that the eyelets on the FOX don't have the tolerances required for these spherical bearings.

poah

you don't need them on a mountain bike - some shocks come with them as standard but no point other wise.

cooldad

I don't think he rides a bike.

AndreD19

I do am an avid mountainbiker, that's why I decided to go for this shock, only this time I'm designing the suspension for a racecar.

I know they don't do much in bike frames since the plane of damper actuation is constant. For this application however, using standard bushings would induce bending loads in the shock.

I know the bushings are fairly easy to remove, my concern is that the spherical bearing may not get the tight fit it requires in the eyelet.

poah

you should be able to find bearings that fit

rockmonkeysc

You wouldn't want this set up on a race car. You'll need an interference fit otherwise after a very short time it'll be looser than a gentleman sausage in a bucket and the shock will be toast. If you could get the right fit I doubt the eyelet would be strong enough to take the radial loads imposed by the press fit and the suspension loads.
You can design a pushrod actuated set up which will work using bushes. You might want to put in some polyurethane bushes on the larger pivot joints to get a tiny amount of compliance and prevent all your rose joints getting destroyed by high frequency vibration.