New favourite tool - and a Jawa (Velorex) wheel bearing swap for 17mm axles

As some may know, stock Velorex 560 and 562/700 sidecar axles are puny 15mm items. Which I suppose is totally fine if you bear in mind, that the original Jawa 350 put out 12 hp and even the final Jawa 350 models were in the low 20ies. Now even a restricted SR500 is 27hp and an unrestricted one is at least in the low 30ies. As a result, I swapped out the axle years ago for an old XS400 rear axle and fitted an XS400 rear wheel to the sidecar (thus also increasing the wheel-size to 18").

The new owner of my sidecar also bought a set of wire wheels for those... pretty moments, because to be honest, the cast wheels are very functional, but that's about the end of the story really.

Luckily there's also 6302-bearings with a 17mm inner cage. Swapping out the old Jawa bearings was slightly overdue though.

The first hurdle that has to be overcome is this aluminium cover, which covers the sprocket-drive on the wheel. It just has to be pried off. Normally they are rattly and loose - this one wasn't.

And here it is, my new favourite tool: a 3 Euro hotplate for heating up hubs and bearings. Works an absolute charm as it heats up the parts very evenly. 

Slightly crusty original bearings... 

The only tricky part is this clip that retains the bearing and is usually hid under a stupid layer of crud!

Proper new double-sealed 6302 (17mm) bearing.

And there you have it. The only part missing in the pictures is the part, where I drill out the center-tube to 17mm...