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Searching through an ungodly amount of bearing brands for a set of 6206 RS C3 (30mm X 62mm X 16mm (or Height 0.627 ID 1.18 OD 2.44) bearings for this badboy. Knowing price ain't always a good judge of quality. So was wondering if anyone had a particular brand of bearing as their go to?
There's so many brands.

My wholesaler supplies Japanese NTN bearings that seem to last at least 2 times longer than the unbranded ones I get from Stens and that is after I remove the petrolium jelly & apply real Timken bearing grease .

bertsmobile1 said:

My wholesaler supplies Japanese NTN bearings that seem to last at least 2 times longer than the unbranded ones I get from Stens and that is after I remove the petrolium jelly & apply real Timken bearing grease .

Click to expand...

The ones I went with are PGN. It looks like they're Japanese also. I looked at their website and seen something about Japan.

You really need to be introduced to my bearing supplier and they are just the state over from you. Of they don't free shipping but with USPS that is only around $9 per order. And they do offer a flat rate shipping. Now of I buy in pack of 10 each.

6206-2RS KOYO (Japan) bearings


6206-2RS Spinco (house brand Chinese) bearings


But as Bert said I do pop the seals and replace the grease with EP2 grease here. And they are lasting a lot long than junk Amason bearings I tried.

StarTech said:

You really need to be introduced to my bearing supplier and they are just the state over from you. Of they don't free shipping but with USPS that is only around $9 per order. And they do offer a flat rate shipping. Now of I buy in pack of 10 each.

6206-2RS KOYO (Japan) bearings
View attachment 62764

6206-2RS Spinco (house brand Chinese) bearings
View attachment 62765

But as Bert said I do pop the seals and replace the grease with EP2 grease here. And they are lasting a lot long than junk Amason bearings I tried.

Click to expand...

Recently I got introduced to some info about Chinese steel and how it's not very good. I'll have to do some checking to find that info again. But the end result was that Chinese steel just isn't that great at all. I want to say it's in their heat treating.

A supplier would be fine. But they're just suppliers. I'm hoping to find a manufacturer who makes quality, at a reasonable price. That way I can look for that brand in my normal places. Like Amazon.

Amazon sells what their sellers sell. Does Amazon actually sell anything?

When it comes to sales most rarely sell products they manufacture themselves in the retail market places like Amazon and Walmart. One of the problems with Amazon is the third party vendors that are selling crappy products. Some are fly by night operations; otherwords, set, sell a lot, and then disappear before all the returns start.

As for my bearing supplier this all they do as they are a distributor and the Spinco bearings are manufacture to their specs. Now they have added a Mower seat site but that is a separate company division. The problem there is that I need three point mounted seats and they have none.

And most Chinese steel is junk but not all that why you must buy from a company that does their homework, demands quality over quantity, and stand behind the product with a good warranty.

It was same crap said about the Japanese products years ago. Now they are considered some the best products out there.

I'm trying to avoid junk. I can somewhat recognize junk on Amazon. But Amazon could very well have a supplier that sells a quality brand. The brand I went with, I could order this brand from Amazon, Ebay or Walmart. Where they're sold, I don't think is a good way to judge if they're junk or not. Price is a fairly good way (being way cheaper than the others). But price isn't a rock solid way of judging, because I seen this same brand (&the same size I need,) for double the price I paid for it. Had I bought the PNG's for the higher price, just because the price was high, I would've been wasting my money.

You make a good point about your supplier making sure they're not selling junk.

This why you must hone your procurement ability when in business as you are the one that controls the internal quality you sale.

And I understand the PNG are lower in cost @ 2.29 ea but I had quality issues with the ones that came from Amazon and that why I am sticking the SpinCo and and Koyo bearings. IT is my business rep that is on the line if they fail early.

And the SpinCo bearings are 4.67 ea and I had good luck with over the last 6+ yrs I have been using them. It just I will install the Koyo on the commercial units.

Now I do have a question. Where these 6206 bearing being used?

According my inventory I never had used them yet...Notice the "yet" as I might just need them tomorrow.

They're going on a Badboy 6000 ZT spindles. 60"

The bearings you use (Koyo and SpinCo), do you have to replace the grease before you install? If so, why not find a brand that has a better quality grease?

I worked at a sub division of a bearing seller. They ordered a pallet load of 6202 bearings got them for .050¢ each, probably cannot buy the bearing box from a reputable manufacturer for that.
A customer came to the counter and said, I have been using Chinese bearings in a dirt bike professionally racing it. A Chinese bearing costs 1/3 less than a good brand and gets worn out every 2-3 races. A good bearing costs more and lasts the whole year and gets replaced with winter teardown while still good.

mcostello said:

I worked at a sub division of a bearing seller. They ordered a pallet load of 6202 bearings got them for .050¢ each, probably cannot buy the bearing box from a reputable manufacturer for that.
A customer came to the counter and said, I have been using Chinese bearings in a dirt bike professionally racing it. A Chinese bearing costs 1/3 less than a good brand and gets worn out every 2-3 races. A good bearing costs more and lasts the whole year and gets replaced with winter teardown while still good.

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The PNG's I ordered, I could get them straight from the company. They were about $6 a piece. I found the same bearing, on Ebay for half that. Not sure what's up with that.
Maybe a copy cat?

This is kind of the reason I started this thread. Looking for something of good quality and reliable.

PTmowerMech said:

They're going on a Badboy 6000 ZT spindles. 60"

The bearings you use (Koyo and SpinCo), do you have to replace the grease before you install? If so, why not find a brand that has a better quality grease?

Click to expand...

The grease is probably fine but I got into habit of changing it and I see no reason to change. I just don't trust that cream color grease.

And I probably need a 10 pack of the those then as I have a few Bad Boys in the area.

As for pricing I have seen the same with Xtreme clutches they cost more from Xtreme than they do from Stens.

Recently I got introduced to some info about Chinese steel and how it's not very good. I'll have to do some checking to find that info again. But the end result was that Chinese steel just isn't that great at all. I want to say it's in their heat treating.

A supplier would be fine. But they're just suppliers. I'm hoping to find a manufacturer who makes quality, at a reasonable price. That way I can look for that brand in my normal places. Like Amazon.

Amazon sells what their sellers sell. Does Amazon actually sell anything?

Click to expand...

From the top
1) Chinese steel mills make what they are asked to make
Good high quality steel is expensive to make so costs more money
US companies want CHEAP to maximumize their profits ( and that IS the problem ) so they buy products made from cheap steel
China makes steel to order , not for stock so the steel mills will make steel to any international standard
Having said that China does have their owns steel standards based on the Japanese JSI standards but with higher levels of Phosphorous & Sulphur ( then major impurities in steel ) and by doing this they simply buy iron ore from 5 different countries & mix the filthy ores with high quality ore from Aust so the output is the lowest grade of steel that is acceptable but is very very cheap and cheap is what the West wants because we are very greedy & selfish .

2) bearings are the most counterfitted product on the planet ( not Rolex watches ) and buying bearings from anonomous sources like Amazon is begging to be supplied with counterfit bearings which is why bearings must always be bought from a specialist retailer with a real shop that you can walk up to & throw a brick through the front window.
So use the retailer Star pointed you to and never ever get bearings off the www .
I tried some from various manufacturers in China and all of them will stamp what ever brand you ask for into the bearings is you buy them in big enough numbers and if bought in the thousands they will ever pack them in fake brand name boxes .
Which bearings there is cheap & there is good and those qualities are mutually exclusive
So Stars supplier sells quality brand name bearings (Koyo ) and budget house branded Chinese bearings for less critical applications, they are being honest about this and honest people are what we should be dealing with.
Then only time a quality bearing will be cheaper is when they are supplied in commercial tubes & not retail boxes and even then you are only looking at a 10% to 20% discount which is generated from bulk handling savings .

PTmowerMech said:

The PNG's I ordered, I could get them straight from the company. They were about $6 a piece. I found the same bearing, on Ebay for half that. Not sure what's up with that.
Maybe a copy cat?

This is kind of the reason I started this thread. Looking for something of good quality and reliable.

Click to expand...

Unless bought from a genune bearing shop, the name on the box or even in the side of the bearing means nothing as Chinese manufacturers will put any name the customer wants on them if ordered in the thousands
So I can buy 1000 x 62032rs bearings for 65¢ each, pay the extra 5¢ to have them put in Timken boxes then sell then for $ 10 a piece on Amazon and you think you are getting Timkens at a $ 5 discount .
I faffed around for a long time to try & get a reasonable quality bearing supply and some of the cheap bearings were frightening
This is what I found
1) less balls , the cheap bearings had 1 or 2 fewer balls and a shallower grove to make up the space
2) thinner cages with wider spaces spot welded rather than rivets
3) thinner rivets in the cages that were not properly set
4) bad grease ( actually it is shipping / assembly lube not grease )
5) undersized rubber shields that litterally fell out
6) rubber shields without steel backing

so forget about buying bearings for ebay or Amazon

bertsmobile1 said:

My wholesaler supplies Japanese NTN bearings that seem to last at least 2 times longer than the unbranded ones I get from Stens and that is after I remove the petrolium jelly & apply real Timken bearing grease .

Click to expand...

Kawasaki uses NTN bearings OEM in their Mules, or at least their older models.

I've had good luck with Timken and PGN bearings. and like bert said, i always remove the seals on them and pack them with hi temp wheel bearing grease.

bertsmobile1 said:

So Stars supplier sells quality brand name bearings (Koyo ) and budget house branded Chinese bearings for less critical applications, they are being honest about this and honest people are what we should be dealing with.
Then only time a quality bearing will be cheaper is when they are supplied in commercial tubes & not retail boxes and even then you are only looking at a 10% to 20% discount which is generated from bulk handling savings .

Click to expand...

Exactly why I buy 10+ bearing at a time. As in this case of Koyo 6206 bearing I can save $0.39 ea when I order 10 and even more when I order 25+. Buy I am in the business of repairing multiple units.
And boy is Bad Boy proud of the bearings at $42.58 ea.

And checking Carnell as to what grease is in the SpinCo bearings.

They replied they are using Chevron SRI-2 grease but you can't prove that by the bearings I got back Mar 2022. The grease is not dark green. Some kind of clear amber grease.