My '09 street glide takes 5 wheel bearings. That's $140 at the dealer without labor. There's no way I'm doing that every time I change tires. (I'm on my fifth set). Maybe the California weather is easier on them but no problems so far.

 

I'm mystified by this wheel bearing thing! There was a short period, after H-D introduced sealed ball races and dropped the good ole tapered roller bearings, when there was a quality problem. Even my Buell was affected, needing new bearings at the same time as it's first set of replacement tyres, at around 4,500 miles. However it hasn't been a problem for the last few years, so I don't see any need to change bearings unnecessarily. After all my 1990 Glide is still on it's original bearings!

 

I went to change my rear tire for the first time on my 2012 Ultra and one of the wheel bearings were bad.

 

That's tough - I thought it was sorted out long ago! Fortunately the bearings in my Buell are the same as many Jap bikes, so I have access to plenty of aftermarket brands.

 

The change to new bearing types happened circa 2009 model with a new abs sensor bearing used as well. The abs bearing is an unusual bearing which you can only get from Harley, which thankfully, generally holds up well (although I read of some failures). The other, which is a fairly standard bearing available anywhere. is in my opinion absolute crap.

I have had failures, front and rear at less than 8k miles. The front failed at 60mph in a corner.....not an experience I'd like to repeat!

I replaced all the non abs bearings with Allballs, but any branded bearing will be better than the oem part, in my opinion. Bearing failures in post 2009 touring models are well documented on this site, and for a part which was advertised at the model launch with having a service life of 100k miles is unacceptable.

To hear its happening today on 2012+ models is a disgrace on a high end vehicle.

 

It might be overkill, but the bearings get changed with every tire change.


To me, it's cheap insurance, especially riding a fully loaded FLHTK and about 90% with a passenger. That's a lot of weight on the bearings, not to mention that a lot of the Northern Illinois roads suck.


If I rode a lighter bike, might feel differently.

 

I bought a set of All ***** bearings to replace the failed OEM bearings. For the low cost, I might just start replacing the wheel bearings when I change tires as well.

 

I suspect the majority of problems are not with the bearings themselves, but the grease, or lack thereof. I haven't had any bearing failures on my motorcycles, but might have if I hadn't popped the seals and checked inside before using them. Many are packed well, but some have very little grease; I've seen several that had what looked like a "string" of clear grease? (looked like Vaseline) only about 1/16" thick on one side of the bearing race. The bearing would have had to spin up before any lube reached the *****, too. I wipe anything clear off and use a big name synthetic, like Shell or Mobile, and plenty of it. It's not just motorcycles, found the same on auto and jet airliners. I've even found a few with no grease at all.

Some bearings (even Timken!) come from the factory with a preservative coating, but NO grease. That's deliberate; the user or reseller is supposed to use a grease appropriate for the application. Some of the companies that package a bearing made elsewhere, like All *****, seem to do a good job with grease, but I wonder if some of these el cheapo repackaged bearings only have preservative. Another good reason to check.

Wheel bearings aren't really high rpm in the bearing world. A 21" wheel/tire spins the bearing close to 1000 rpm at 60 mph; just about any wheel bearing is rated at several times that speed. Wipe the grease off the outer side of the bearing after grease packing before pressing the seal back on, and this should leave enough space for a ball "tunnel" to avoid heat buildup from ***** churning through a solid layer of grease. At 10,000 rpm, this could be critical, but at street wheel bearing speeds, they handle plenty of grease. Tapered wheel bearings in cars, motorcycles, and aircraft have been packed solid since the beginning. I'm sure a lot of us old timers have done that plenty of times.

Greases to avoid using:
Moly, the black stuff. It's long fibered clay based, oil seeps out, and best for sliding surfaces, not ball bearings.

Hydroscopic grease. That means it absorbs water. Mobil 28 (it's red) is one of these. I've seen this special purpose grease used wrong, it ain't pretty.

Timken has some good info on grease, what to use, how to use, and what happens when you don't do it right. Pages -

http://www.timken.com/EN-US/products...ages/info.aspx

http://www.timken.com/EN-US/products...Pages/faq.aspx

I really think the Harley community (including dealers) would experience far less bearing problems by just insuring the bearings they use are properly lubricated.

 

Another thing to look for inside new bearings - plastic cages. Yes, some el cheapos to fit Harleys have plastic ball cages. I bought a new wheel that came with those installed. They never got on the road... I know they're just spacers for the *****, but still, think of the pressure in there with an 800lb Harley riding on them.

Did you pop a seal to see what it looked like inside?

While I don't like the idea of a Chinese made bearing, I have to admit All ***** have a solid looking bearing, well greased (they claim Chevron Synthetic), and the ones I've looked inside had double seals on both sides. If only they used bearings made somewhere else...

 

I understand that the wheels themselves come from the same place.....