We've updated our range of Santa Cruz bearing tool kits to cover all the latest models, including the new Nomad 5 and the Heckler and Bullit e-bikes!
Santa Cruz have always been good at standardising their bearings and that trend continues - every bike that they have made in the last decade has used some combination of the same two bearing sizes for it's rear suspension pivots, meaning that there's a tonne of cross-compatibility between our different SC kits.
Interestingly, SC started moving from the angular contact 7900/7902 to the normal radial 6900/6902 version of their bearings a few years ago. Though essentially identical on the outside, angular contact bearings tilt the internal geometry of the races, making them able to carry higher axial loads than a standard radial bearing.
In theory this may make for a stiffer linkage. The downside is that angular contact bearings, though stronger when loaded axially in one direction, are weaker when loaded axially in the other direction. This can lead to issues with the bearing collapsing during removal. We've offered special pullers to many customers over the years to help with the removal of stuck outer rings. Perhaps for this reason SC have moved towards the more user-friendly axial bearing design for all their new bikes.
All of our Santa Cruz kits can be found here.
