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Steering stem - Mandatory to keep bearings & race as a pair?

1K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Renboy 
#1 ·
I am about to swap out my Daytona yoke/triple for the Striple yoke/triple (to increase trail on my track bike) and was wondering if it is mandatory to keep the taper roller bearings and race as a pair (excluding damaged or heavily worn items of course)? I did a lot of searching but this never really came up, only questions about the actual replacement of bearings/races.

The bearings currently on the Striple yoke are in great condition as is the bearing race that is currently in the frame for the Daytona yoke. Now I know the optimal thing is to keep the bearing and race as a pair, but is it absolutely mandatory?

This wouldn't be such a conundrum if I knew I would keep the Striple yoke/triple for good and just replace the bearings altogether, but if I don't like the geometry changes, I'd like to go back to my old yoke/triples. In which case I'd have to destroy 2 good bearings/races just to install 2 new pairs to comply with the mandatory pairing.

I'm going to give it a try with the mis-match bearing/races anyway just to see if I get weird movement or binding, but wanted to know if this was an absolute no-no or not. Thoughts or feedback from anyone?
 
#2 ·
It's not absolutely mandatory, but usually recommended, so the bearings and races wear together. You will be fine as long as neither is heavily worn, which seems to be the case. The biggest thing with bearings is just make sure to grease them properly.
 
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#5 ·
Bearings are made with such tight tolerances that they're virtually identical. Like others have said, if neither is worn excessively then there shouldn't be any problem.
 
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