Ok I'll bite how do you preform maintenance on sealed bearings????

My FXSTC has a 21" wheel and I haven't noticed any reduction in handling.
I grant you that skinny tire seems to follow road grooves more than my Heritage but in the twisties it's great. YMMV

 

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Put in a new one.

 

I have a Deuce solid rear on my Glide with an SG front. Odd wheels are fine by me - well they are now!

 

Yup. My current Firebolt wore out all it's sealed wheel bearings in no time - I had to replace them along with the worn-out stock tyres it came with, but later ones have proved fine so far. They are widely available, I got mine from my local Yamaha dealer!

 

So maintenance for sealed bearings is to replace them every time you replace the tire??

That wouldn't have helped my friends wife out much when her front wheel bearings went out at 1.5k miles.

Y'all can keep your sealed bearings and I'll keep my tapered ones.

 

No I didn't suggest replacing bearings and tyres at the same time. There was a short period a few years ago when Harley bought crap bearings, which my Buell and quite probably your friend suffered from. Servicing them is replacing them when they wear out, same as with tapered bearings.

With tapered bearings we can pull them apart and regrease them. There are those who think that extends their service life, which is debatable! The sealed bearing problem of a few years ago seems to have been solved, simply by using decent quality bearings. I didn't replace Buttercup's bearings when fitting the next new tyre recently.

are some members who suggest they can be serviced, but frankly that is

 

I think you forgot a few parts of that sentence.

 

Ooops! Should have deleted it, having reworded it in the para above.

 

I've never had a problem with sealed bearings...Don't pressure wash the bike an avoid spraying directly at them on full stream is the only thing I've ever heard about them. I've heard of some guys that ride in heavy rain putting a layer of marine grease over them every year.