Bicycle Mechanics - Formula or Phil Wood or stock industrial cartridge bearings?

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Sequimite
08-05-10, 07:21 PM
I hope to someday have Phil Wood hubs on the touring bike I'm building right now. I bought Formula hubs thinking I would use Phil Wood cartridge bearings in them for some time (years?) until I can upgrade the hubs.

Now though I'm wondering if:

a) there is little enough difference that I should just run the original bearings until they need to be replaced

b) go with original plan and put in the Phils

c) buy XYZ industrial bearings (perhaps some of you engineering types can recommend XYZ)

ps: that's 6000 standard cartridge bearings, PW000 for the Phil Wood

operator
08-05-10, 07:49 PM
Wasting time thinking about it. Whatever hubs you get, run the original bearings into the ground and replace with phil woods. The formula hubs come with bearings that are below enduro quality.
Sequimite
08-05-10, 08:17 PM
Wasting time thinking about it.

Stop obsessing, are you mad? What else is there to do when I'm not riding?

davidad
08-05-10, 11:12 PM
There is no advantage to the Phil bearings. They don't make them they buy them from one of the manufacturers. Run your bearings until they get rough or noisy then replace or pull the dust seals and clean and elub them every 3 to 5k miles.
It is impossible to get a better hub for touring than the shimano deore hubs.
fietsbob
08-06-10, 12:31 AM
Enduro bearings are what I got to replace the ones that Roger Durham fitted in my Bullseye hubs..
they are what is described as a 90% bearing fill, all balls no spacers.

the company doing business as Phil Wood [Phil sold the company and moved back to the midwest and bought the farm, literally in the last year.. died ]
they have a bearing contract with a Taiwanese manufacturer..
'Phil Spec' but not made in Calif.

fwiw, you can cross reference bearings by their ID, OD, and thickness.