No bearing clearance, no relubrication:
iglidur in the foldable mountain bike

Problem

The mechanism of the folding frame has a lot of bearing points that are exposed to extreme loads when the bike is ridden off-road. The bike is exposed to all kinds of weather conditions. Therefore, the bearings must work perfectly in wet, muddy and dusty conditions and also cope well with temperature fluctuations. Due to the large number and generous dimensions of the bearing points, Thomas Schwaiger, aka "Tonkel Om", therefore needed a bearing material suitable for these loads, which also had to be as light as possible.

Solution

iglidur plain bearings meet all these requirements. It was very easy to integrate the bushings made of high-performance plastics into the folding mechanism. Not only the low weight and the absence of lubrication, but also the service life is convincing: after a maintenance-free two-year testing phase with several thousand kilometres in every possible terrain, no bearing play was detected. There was no need to renew the bearings. Should this be necessary one day, the replacement can be carried out easily and inexpensively.