If it's just making a little noise, probably not. But hand turning it while jacked up, you might be able to feel a little roughness. Really bad bearings, you might be able to rock the wheel a little off vertical. You can also use a stethoscope if you have one, or put a screwdriver handle against your ear with the tip against the wheel near the bearing and rotate it slowly. Any gritty sounds, I'd pull the wheel and pop a seal off to look in there, also then you could rotate the inner race by finger and feel for roughness. If the rotating wheel sounds like a tire on gravel, you want new bearings. I've heard that sound from motorcycle wheel bearings, too, and they were nasty when I pulled them.

 

I can feel it in my handlebars especially when turning at higher speeds. Just annoying as hell for me.

 

Thanks, I sometimes feel it too but never know, maybe the road is a little uneven, maybe tires, maybe bearings? So many things going on at high speed on 2 wheels it's really hard to pinpoint. I'll try to jack it up as Imold suggested.

 

Mine were really shot and I heard grinding noise at low speed.

 

They have been using these same bearings and failing since 2008, I don't think they will recall them. They have been revised twice. There are now a couple alternatives to the ABS bearing. The non ABS side is a 6205 2rs available everywhere. SKS, Fafnir, Nachi etc.

 

42000 miles on my 2014 Limited and no issues. Will need a new front tire in a few thousand miles and will check bearings again at that time. May go ahead and replace regardless.

 

I replaced mine at about 24K. I put the bearings in the freezer a few hours before I did the work. They slid in pretty easy with some grease. No press needed.
The center spacer is just that. It doesn't rotate or anything, so a bit of rust on it is no big deal at all. Just looks crappy when ya have the wheel bearings out.

 

I always clean the rust off that spacer and anything else, and coat all the interior metal parts with grease or anti seize. Sure comes apart easier next time, and have never seen rust in a wheel I put back together. I've had to beat axles out with a sledge hammer on some used bikes, hate doing that. That freezer trick works good, too, I've also done that.

Anyone doing Harley wheel bearings themselves for the first time, do some research. On a single disk wheel, the disk side bearing always goes in first. The second bearing doesn't get pressed in till it stops - that will pre-load the inner races. It just goes in till there's no sideways play in the inner spacer; some bearing tools will do this by design. If the disk brake drags when you put it back together, you may have the spacers in wrong or the bearings. Wheel bearings aren't a "good enough" job, they're a "do it right" right job.

 

2014 limited at 46.000 miles front wheel bearing done

 

2016 SGS 16,000 miles, time for a rear tire so replaced both with mc II. Rear abs bearing was toast, so replaced both front and rear with all *****. How much more could it cost at a manufacturing level to use decent bearings ?