I think you'll be happy w/ your venture as it is a nice and solid heli (mind you it is a bit heavier than other 30 size helis but ...) Get into a habbit of checking your heli over before each flight or at least before you start the day's flying. Keep an eye on the tail boom and the support. It has a tendency to loosen up so it woudnt hurt to put that allen wrench on the bolts and see if they're still tight. Also while your at it, check the belt tension as well. One other thing that you'll notice is that ocassionally the blades will go out of track. They will defenetly go out of track if you let a folded blade drop and hang unsuported. That puts a lot of stress on the swashplate linkages and almost always will cause the blades to go out of track (I had that happen on my venture a few times, so now I am really careful when I go to extend the blades)
You asked about bearings. I replaced my bearings each time I crashed ... which was twice so far. All I did there was take the whole heli apart and check everything and most of the time, if you bent your main shaft, your bearings are gone too. Providing you dont crash, your bearings should last for a long time. I think i have about 7 gallons on this ship and the bearings are still good. How do I know that ? Well I know how this heli is supposed to sound in flight but also, spin your blades and listen for noises. It should spin freely and quietly.
Keep in mind you have a lot of moving parts in there so do keep an eye on everything. Things will start to come loose from vibration and stress but if you keep ahead of the game you'll have no problems. This is what I do and so far it served me well. Hope it helps.