Originally Posted by
scarlson
Nice! That is lightweight even for a Ti bb. Yeah, I regrease sealed bearings all the time. If you can pop off the rubber seals, that'll work nicely. Even if there's a tiny bit of rust, if you flush it and the bearings look fine, go ahead and regrease them!
If the bearings are feeling awful/crunchy (indicating water ingress and pitting), replacing can easily be done. Read the numbers on the bearings and order some up. They should be readily available. I've taken sealed BBs apart using a hammer - I don't like doing that. Screw in a bolt and hammer on the bolt, never the BB shaft directly. I've also done it with a car jack and some large diameter deep sockets. A gear puller or bearing puller, like for car engine/transmission work, works even better and they can be found cheaply at Autozone or whatnot. Or if you have an arbor press or a large vise to use as a press, you can do it the Right Way. But all methods will work! Careful not to mess up the threads of those alloy cups!
I found the OMAS bearings come off easily enough, they're a light press fit or a snug slip fit. somewhere in that range. Sorry I don't remember what tools I used but it wasn't anything fancy.
I also interchanged parts both ways between those and Stronglight's version. The bearings fit both the axle and the cups the same, on OMAS as on SL. The SL bearings I worked with had a wiper seal inside and out, versus the non-contact shield on the cartridges OMAS used. So feel free to sub in some fully-sealed cartridges like SL did, into your OMAS. It adds a little extra friction but that sort of seal friction doesn't go up under heavy load and becomes rather insignificant in the big picture, I believe. Maybe a real bearing engineer can correct me if seal friction is something to fret about. But I liked the little extra protection against water and gunk getting in.
If I recall, the bearings were quite standard and easy to find. Probably still are common though I haven't looked in a long time