The invention relates to a bearing unit for supporting a transmission shaft, which comprises an inner ring, an outer ring, a sealing member, and tapered rollers; two tapered rollers are respectively disposed between the inner ring and the outer ring; the inner ring has a fission structure; the outer ring has an integrated structure; a sealing member is disposed between the outer ring and the inner ring. The invention also relates to a gear reducer which mainly comprises a casing, a transmission shaft, a driving bevel gear, and a driven bevel gear; the transmission shaft is mounted on the casing through the bearing unit; the outer transmission shaft of the bearing unit is equipped with a retaining locking nut. The reducer improves the stability in bevel gear operation, changes traditional assembling methods for obtaining a required bearing clearance by replacing a shim and repeatedly adjusting, omits clearance adjustment, greatly improves the manufacturability and reliability of reducer assembling, reduces complicated process flow for original assembling, and improves production efficiency. In addition, the invention also has the advantages of compact structure, easy mounting and dismounting, and the like.