AVID's new spiritual bearing line

 

 

 

When looking for that ultimate performance out of your vehicles, die-hard racers have been prepping their cars by removing the grease from our bearings and adding oil.   11 years ago we innovated the Revolution bearing seal (1 rubber seal and 1 metal shield) to offer the best performance while also providing the most protection to the elements like dust and water (it is true, tracks used to be muddy).  Now we are ready to take that innovation to the next level by introducing our Aura bearing line.  We took what we learned from our rear ceramic engine bearings and shrank that technology down to offer the most advanced bearings to be used in the gearbox of popular 2wd 10th scale off-road vehicles.  The bearings have no seals*, high speed nylon ball retainer**, SiN34 ceramic balls, tighter tolerances, and high-speed oil.   This line was developed for the racers that enjoy maintaining their equipment and don’t mind spending a little extra to have the best performance available.  We are not stopping with just gearbox kits either;  we will be rolling out the Aura bearing with different seal options for those that would like to use them throughout their whole vehicle.

 

 

Considering the diversity of our loyal customers, spending more is not always the way to go.  The Aura line is not designed for the warriors that race several times a week and don’t have time to go through their car to provide the proper maintenance needed to keep the Aura in a positive state.  We recommend that you stick with our greased Halo Revolution bearing line which has established a prowess all of its own by being a 2 time IFMAR World Champion winning product.

SOME AVID BEARING HISTORY

2 years after we introduced the Revolution seal and the $1 bearing, the racing community became more aware of the gains had by a higher performance bearing;  They began requesting oil in the bearings instead of grease because they wanted to skip the running-in process to free the bearings up.  We did just what our customers wanted and started using oil.  Sure enough after the 1st month of offering our popular Revolution line with oil, customers started asking to go back to the grease because even though the oil performed like a beast right out of the box, they didn’t last long.  The oil offers no secondary protection to the elements unlike grease.  With a greased bearing, a new bearing doesn’t free wheel very long (bearing acts very stiff) but after you run your vehicle for a few packs and push that grease out of the deep groove in the center of the races, they free up and that grease acts as an extra barrier of protection by not allowing dust to migrate easily to the balls.  So we returned to a greased bearing line and begun educating the general public on the benefits over oil.  Jump forward 8 years to the present day and we have a completely new breed of racers that haven’t been educated with what our community learned almost a decade ago.   So racers are once again asking for the oiled line up and we weren’t willing to go down that road with our Revolution line just yet without a slow introduction and education of what to expect from such a bearing.  Thus we are introducing the Aura line in a protected environment (gearboxes) so racers can begin learning how to maintain such a high end product.

HOW TO MAINTAIN YOUR AURA BEARINGS

You should never use motor spray and especially not brake clearer on any RC bearing.

Those products make cleaning a breeze but at a price because they are caustic and eat away the surface causing excessive pitting on the races.  The best way to clean bearings is to use a citrus cleaner which you can usually find at home depot or even the grocery store and safe to have on your skin.  It takes a bit more work but your bearings will thank you.  There are several ways to do it, an ultra-sonic cleaner is the best to make a soak with but with our current Aura line having no seals you may pour the citrus cleaner into a bowl and put the bearing on a top shaft, diff outdrive, or idler pin so you can submerse it in the solution and lightly spin the bearing so any debris will work its way out.  Once the bearing is smooth again, remove the residue left behind by the citrus cleaner by running water over them and then immediately dry them.  We suggest using an air compressor to make sure no water is left but don't let the air compressor spin the bearing (very bad for the balls and races to be operated at such high RPM).  Once dry, lubricate quickly to protect the bearings from humidity and so you don’t accidentally run them dry.  We suggest using Avid Slip Oil or Slide Grease.

Dealers contact sales@avidrc.com for information on carrying AVID products.

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