Never suffers damage? Agreed.

And I'm no expert on the topic, but I would like to believe the MoCo would use a lubricant that's appropriate for the bearing's operating environment.

I suspect the SM directive to remove, inspect, and re-pack the bearing every 20K is more about exercising an abundance of caution that keeps riders safe - and the MoCo out of court - for the rare cases where something does go wrong with the bearing.

If I stored my bike unmoved for months on end, or rode a lot on wet, salty roads, I'd be more inclined to go through this process. But on my garaged California bike that's ridden almost daily and very rarely in the rain, I think re-packing this bearing is likely not necessary.

 

It'd be interesting to hear from dealership techs how many 100k re-packs they do with no appreciable wear

 

If the races are clean and pretty and no pitting or brinneling, grease em and continue on.

 

my 2006 EG 60k did the inspection and adjustment, and everything was in good condition

 

Thanks for the report.

Once you had the fork stem off, how long would you say it took to go through the clean, pack, reassemble, and fall-away adjustment, and how many times did you have to do it?

 

10 hours approx , also change the fork oil