Should I be concerned about quality of these new sealed wheel bearings?

When I first started pulling Nortons apart, I didn't know about sealed wheel bearings.
I washed out the original bearings, which were almost always in great shape, and installed them with new felt seals.
I made a custom punch which cut both diameters of the new seal in one shot.
The seals were punched out of an old felt hat brim that was the perfect thickness. Worked great.
A good British bike parts supplier can supply new felt seals.
And no worries about bearings made out of chinesium.

Stumbled on this thread. Did a google search on fake bearings. Was horrified.

Mike40M said:

Stumbled on this thread. Did a google search on fake bearings. Was horrified.

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Fakery is everywhere these days unfortunately.

You can never protect yourself against it 100%. But buying from trusted / respected sources GREATLY stacks the odds in your favour.

Conversely, buying from random retailers who have no Norton connection, or from those with a chequered history / reputation, or from faceless sellers on the internet, definitely increases your likelihood of obtaining fake, and thus poor quality, goods.

For those that insist on brand names, I can now get SKF 4203-2RS. They cost almost 3 times as much as the generic ones I sell. PM or email.

I am pleased to say that with an internal bearing puller I got the bearings out first
try by heating the hub a bit with a propane torch.

The new sealed bearings of good quality are now installed

Doing the rear bearings will be easy now!

Many thanks to all
Dennis
Vancouver

Stephen Hill said:

What do we know about the bearing supplied by Don Pender?

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I know about the one fitted to the brake hub (4203 2RS). I fitted one of Don's rear hubs in November 2020. I had it collapse last year after just under 13,000 miles.

I did approach Don about this and did get a reply saying all his earlier stock bearings have been used up. So they are out there somewhere. It’s maybe a bit unfair to post this without him knowing so @madass140

A friend who knows a mechanical forensics engineer looked at what I recovered.

Steel is not all the same, when I was tasked with buying steel for shell bearings the spec included an allowable level of manganese inclusions, not normally a requirement for other components. If the level was not met the each inclusion was a weak point, on a shell bearing this produced a 'tick' where a piece of steel lifted away. Ball and roller bearing manufacturers have the same requirements, if an inclusion is just below the surface of the track it lifts and reveals a hole which then starts the failure of the bearing. The lowest inclusion steel makers were in Germany/Sweden and Belgium. When I asked a Chinese maker a decade ago what their inclusion level was I got a 'what's an inclusion' reply. They will have moved on and improved as otherwise the bearing makers would not be in China but its does show the cheaper bearings have more than just dimensions to get right.