Jdvt600, I currently have 9445 miles on the odometer, so I have logged just about 6000 miles on the duplex bearing.  It is just like it was the day I installed it.  No wobble, no adverse noise or vibration.  It is holding up well.  I am comfortable with the cheap bearing.

One gotcha that should be helpful.  Make some sort of holder for the bearing.  Something you can but in the inner race so that you can align and drop the bearing into the hot hub.  It's much easier to install if you have something to hold it with.  I believe I used a bolt and nut along with the inner spacer, then removed the nut and slipped the bolt out through the hub.

This shows a socket head cap bolt, washer, nut, and the inner spacer.  They are installed on the stock bearing.  The same sort of device will work just fine on the duplex bearing.  You hold the threaded portion of the bolt.  It allows you to jiggle the bearing around until it aligns perfectly with the hole.  Once aligned, the bearing drops right in.  No pounding or pressing.  Very easy.  Guarantees no damage to the bearing or hub.

Once the bearing is in all the way, let the hub cool completely, then remove the nut and washer.  Push the bolt out and you are ready to go.

Good luck.

Hey all. Does anyone have any pointers on removing the stock grease seal from the driven pulley without destroying it?
( @dragbikemike) If I have to I will. Even though the new bearing is sealed and I won't reuse the stock seal, it pains me slightly to rip it out destroying it in the process.

I have time as the new spacer from @Armen should be arriving later this afternoon when the mailman comes. So I'm paused until then anyway.

Done. No more wobble or rubbing!

Thanks to everyone on the forums especially @Dave, @DragBikeMike and @Armen for the R&D and supply of these parts! New bearing and spacer is installed. I used the 250 degree bbq method with a carrier and the bearing went "plop" right were it needed to. I will admit, I was impatient at first and waited only 10 mins of heating, the bearing only went halfway. Waited 55 mins next time and all went smoothly.

A lot of this is/was new to me. One hangup that caused me a few moments of head scratching, the custom spacer from @Armen is a "left hand". As mentioned in this post http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1119775997, the rear axel is reversed in the image within the Clymers manual. Common sense prevailed and everything went smoothly.

Looking forward to more community mods in the future!

Kamel,
Not at all. Even if you completely reengineered the whole ass end and had a new hub/pulley carrier made, it'd still be a worse idea.
FWIW, the last mass produced bikes to use tapered roller wheel bearings were Harley in 2000, before them BMW in 1984.
An idea who's time has passed.
If 200+ HP bikes are happy with ball bearings, I think they're ok on 30 HP Savages.
Plus, setting up the shimming/preload is a pain. Not sure how you'd do it without making a new hub/carrier.

Thank you Hiko and Armen.

I am curious by nature and question EVERYTHING. I will have a look at the rear wheel hub and pulley assembly and get a better understanding of how it all works. I am pretty sure DragBikeMike's solution is the best but I always challenge ideas and I mean no disrespect with it.

I took a closer look at the pulley today and I think I found a way to improve it even further.

The original bearing is a 6305 ball bearing. A single row bearing with a 25mm ID and 62mm OD and a width of 17mm.

Inside that bearing sits a bushing that has an edge on it and two ends with OD 25mm and ID 17mm.

On the opposite side of the 62mm bearing inside the pulley thingy there is nothing supporting the bushing but a 37x25mm bearing could be fitted there to remedy this and make it even sturdier. One slight problem is that the inside diameter of the aluminium part is slightly larger than 37mm so a 37mm bearing wont sit as tight as it should.

Kamelryttarn, I can report that the bargain-basement 5305-2RS is holding up well.  I have logged about 7500 miles on it and it's still solid as a rock, no pulley wobble, no problems at all.  Still looks good too.  This is such a simple modification.  There really is no need to go any farther.  Pop in the duplex bearing.  Do the simple mod to the spacer.  Ride it.

How's your project goin?  As I recall, you picked up a totally beat Savage. Swing arm bearings were disintegrated.  Steering stem frozen.  You had some top end work to do.  All your posts show nice clean work on your part. You must be getting close to firing it up.