I was Googling for the service bulletin on this issue and ended up here. We just had a customer come in with this issue, and I went through it myself. Figured it wouldn't hurt to pop the thread back up for folks to see.

I had just left the shop on my '09 Road Glide and was going pretty slow on a side street when I thought my front end was disintegrating from the sound. It was terrible! I looked and didn't see anything obvious, but I wasn't looking at the wheel bearing. It sounded like something was slamming into the fender. I ended up riding it back to the shop slowly, where of course it never made that sound again. This is where being a chick who rides a lot really sucks, because I KNEW there was something really wrong, but I couldn't get it to make that noise again, and it was rolling along just fine. Nobody believed me. Boyfriend rode it home, no noise. I rode it tentatively for another couple of weeks (it was early spring and I have another bike, so there weren't a lot of miles in those weeks). I finally felt something weird in the front end and asked if he'd have the mechanic take a look at the wheel bearing. He rode it in to the shop that day and finally heard it. Yay! Totally shot front wheel bearing. I felt vindicated and lucky to be alive.

They're still out there, especially for those of us who bought our bikes used. Mine has almost 50,000 miles on it (bought it last year with 39K), so it lasted a lot longer than most.

 

Hot glad you didn't have any mishap, I'm sitting at a Dealer as I write this getting new tires and told them to please check the bearings on the wheels. I have 31k miles on this bike haven't had a problem. The Road King I had bearing went out at 11k but then never had a problem again, traded that bike in with 62k miles.

 

My front bearings went at 30k miles.....I think it's happening more than most people think.

 

I think it's an issue but I don't think it's that common IMHO. Two tires put on today all was good and the mileage I put on two bikes is 86k and I had one bearing go bad. The initial bike that had a bad bearing was replaced at around 11k sold the bike with 62k miles and it never had a bearing failure again.

 

My front wheel bearings were replaced under warrantee during the 10k service.

 

After riding Harley's for nearly forty years this bearing issue with the newer bikes is the main reason why I won't be buying anymore new Harley's. It's not only the wheel bearings, it also the primary and transmission bearings with a high failure rate.
Harley need to recall the all the newer bikes and replace all the wheel bearings before somebody gets killed.

 

Replaced front and rear on my LTD at 35,000 miles! Then took the wife's SG in for 30,000 mile service and ended up replacing front and rear on it! The mechanic put the bearings in my hands so I could feel the failure!
My dealer is saying that they are replacing most all 2009 and newer touring bikes bearings consistently at 30,000 miles!
The new bearings are supposed to be improved but no real evidence of that yet!!

 

09 Ultra on third set of front wheel bearing with 72k on the bike. Replaced all the back wheel bearings at 55 k just to be safe...ABS so you have to buy HD !!! If that is normal wear and tear, the first of frt wheel only lasted 14k, IMO HD wheel bearings are junk !!!

 

Answer: cheap Chinese junk.

 

Have a set of front wheel bearings, and front break pads on the shelf in the shop for the next front tire change but I'm still running the original front bearings on my 08 with 86,000 miles, no issues so far. I did change the rear wheel bearings at around 50,000 miles, but "just in case", hadn't had any issues.