Fork Protectors / Swing arm sliders

[manxie49]

Quick question for anyone who may know ..... I have these fork protectors and swing arm sliders fitted to my bike.  I was chatting to a someone on Monday who said that he wouldn't use them, as they can cause wheel bearings to overheat and fail ..... I've never heard of this myself and have always used R&G sliders on my bikes.  Is he just talking BS, is it urban myth or is there some truth in what he's saying??  I can't see how they could cause bearings to overheat but I'm no engineer 

 

 

[Mr Fro]

It's bollocks.

 

The bearings are housed in huge aluminium heat sinks - the swing arm and wheel - which will dissipate heat far quicker than a bit of air wafting over them.

[Stu]

 

[Stu]

Also you would have heard of loads of failures by now 

[husoi]

Not only you will have overheating problems in the wheel bearings but because of the extreme heat you will have the wheel expanding and affect the brake disks.

Also, heated metal becomes lighter so you will have less grip.

 

Wait, there is a guy in red stuck in my chimney and funny looking reindeer looking at my window... brb. 

[PaulCa]

Would be interesting to do a test.

 

10 miles with it fitted, followed by an IR camera review of the wheel hub.

 

10 miles without it fitted and the same IR camera review.

 

Note the black plastic will absorb heat from the sun, so it could get to 50*C or so, but I would expect wheel bearings handling a lot more than that and even starting at that temp cold they would be fine.  Especially if the ambient is nowhere near that.

[manxie49]

Thanks folks,  always know I get straight talk without the BS on here, even if it is painful at times!  .... I did think he was talking B------ks, but wasn't certain enough to argue him down.  I personally had never heard of any issues, even after trawling the internet.  He said he'd heard of it happening on Beemers,  but again, I couldn't find anything to support his claims.