Should I expect/need to service susp bearings if I replace the shock at >40k?

[MZ5]

It's cooled off this week, back to ~100F, so I'm thinking about all the things I would normally do over the winter when the weather's nice. I've also been planning a long ride or two that my wife wants to come along for, which has me contemplating rear suspension. I have Gold Valves up front, but an Ohlins (or Penske, or Race Tech if they were cost-competitive) is certainly appealing. I have a bit over 41k miles on the bike as I write this, so I'm wondering:

If I take the shock off for any reason, should I expect to need to service the bearings in the linkage? How about the swingarm? I live where it doesn't rain, and I don't ride off-road (except that I do rarely take gravel or dirt roads, but that's very rare). It is, however, HOT. Supposed to be back to 120F this coming Sunday. That plus the sun often kills things that would last forever if I lived somewhere northward.

I found this thread:
http://nc700-forum.com/forum/nc700-technical/7815-rear-suspension-service.html
wherein re-greasing was done by member Garnet, but it didn't look like it was _needed_, just wanted to be done. No one else then had so many miles on their bikes as several now have. I haven't looked in the manual for procedures yet. I have no vice these days, no press, and extremely little other than hand tools, so I won't be removing any bearings myself unless they fall out on their own by design.

Any thoughts or experience?

 

[bamamate]

My thought and what I did when putting on a new shock, I figured that since I had it partly apart I might as well take the linkage apart and the swing arm off to grease everything. In my case it was good that I did. All of the bearing had little grease on them. Others have reported the same with not a lot of grease on everything.

 

[MZ5]

Thanks, bama. You know, I learned in school that most people (which most definitely included/includes me) massively over-grease wheel bearings. Only just a light coating is needed for lube. The rest is just wasting fuel. That was difficult to hear & accept at first, but as we went through things, I understood. Still don't necessarily follow the advice, but I understood it. ;-)

These bearings just barely move, though, so I can't see how filling them up well with grease would cause a problem.

How was the job overall? I think I understand shock replacement to be fairly quick & painless, but how's the swingarm job? Did you actually remove any of the bearings in the linkage or swingarm, or just shoot 'em with ether (or whatever no-doubt-far-more-suitable cleaner), re-grease, and re-assemble?

 

[bamamate]

The linkage and swing arm are easy. Hardest part is the top bolt for the shock. I didn't try to clean them with anything beyond wiping them off with a shop towel. I used waterproof wheel bearing grease and worked it in a little with my finger. I also gave the bolts a light coat and the mating surfaces to trap water/dirt before it can enter. I ride through a bit of water and one of the linkage bolts had a bit of lite rust where it rides in a spacer so I cleaned that up with fine sandpaper. I've read on several forums with various bikes of people doing this first thing when they get a new bike. First time I took a wheel off the NC I found lite rust on the axel. followed beemerphiles advice on coating it with grease and packing grease in the wheel bearing seal and haven't had that issue again.

 

[Deleted member 1183]

When I replaced my Shock at around 30,000kms one of the linkage bearings was looking too dry for my liking. It was serviceable but I made a note to get a replacement plus some seals in time for my next pull down of the linkage.

 

[MZ5]

Well, I decided to do some fork work, too. I've ordered some low-stiction SKF seals from EPM Performance, and I'll get bushings from Western Honda (my local dealer). Oh-- EPM also sells Hyperpro shocks. ;-)