Kove – Suspension Clean-up

Removed the rear wheel and swingarm etc to start the clean-up and, again, was surprised by what I found.

The lower suspension linkage bolt is very rusty and the bearings have a minimal coating of some kind of black grease, possibly graphite. The linkage bolt also retains the mount for the lower chain roller.

Slight side note: many of the nuts and bolts aren’t the right size. I’m finding sockets and spanners are sloppy. For example the lower chain roller that is the nut for the lower linkage bolt is loose on 19mm but won’t fit 18mm. I’ve found the same with all the 10mm bolts the socket is loose, so you really need to be careful when tightening things. I’m going to start swapping bolts out, but have hit a wall straight away with the linkage bolt as I was happily swapping it when I had a nagging feeling I’d overlooked something, rechecked my photos and could see its a fine thread – 1.25mm instead of the normal, for an M10 bolt, 1.5mm.



I cleaned all the black grease out of the linkage bearings and repacked with Silkolene Pro RG2 Grease and am just waiting for the fine thread bolt to arrive.

I’m hoping the rear wheel spindle is just filthy and not corroded. Swingarm also has some strange wear under the chain slider, looks like the anodised finish has worn off which is odd as its under a non-moving part.

Finished cleaning and have refitted the rear suspension with all the bearings properly greased. I replaced the chain slider screws with stainless steel shallow head allen bolts.

Other things I discovered –

  • needle roller bearings are loose roller, so be very careful when cleaning/greasing as I dropped one without realising straight away
  • one chain adjuster block has an oval hole for the wheel spindle, I measured it and its tapered and oval – FFS, so only fits in one direction and won’t slide down the spindle. Really hoping this isn’t a sign of things to come.