Back on the subject of junk bearings...my rear wheel bearings (HD) were shot after about 6,000 miles on my Fatty. I replaced them with Nachi that I bought from vxb.com. I strongly recommend anyone changing out their tires change out the HD bearings. I could feel a lot of drag in them like the ***** were worn/missing or the cage disintegrated.

 

I've been running HD bearings for over 60k miles with no issues.

 

The bearings in both bikes stated in your signature use sealed bearings, not ones with cages and ball bearings. Check the torque on your wheels when you put the axle nut back on. There's a reason other than being tight that axles on any vehicle have a torque spec.

 

You must have the 25mm axle single row. Older Softails like my 04 have the 1" wide double row with the 3/4" axle. They are bullet proof. I sold a fat boy wheel with 100K+ on it that were still like new...

 

Ask the GF if she still had my ***** in her pocket book.....yep they are safe.

Replaced the rear bearings at 15k. 1 of bearings was shot. 25mm single row

 

They are sealed.. but they are also single row ball bearings with a carrier (cage) holding them in place. They were messed up. Not sure about the axle torque, the dealer did the last tire change. They do everything by the book don't they. I've heard they have calibrated wrists.

I wish my bike had tapered rollers like the older bikes. Slap a little grease in them and your good to go. But then again, MoCo would miss out on 5 dollars profit and lower spare part sales. Now that makes me sad.

 

The rear wheel bearing on my wife's 08 sportster went out while she clipping down the road at 70 mph. She had just passed me and all of a sudden the back wheel started wobbeling side to side. She was able to stop okay but the bearing was shot along with the wheel. Had to replace wheel, bearings, axle and spacers.

There have been many of reports of early bearing failure on the 07 and up bikes with the newer cheaper 25mm bearings.

 

I pop the seal up with a tiny screwdriver on all bearings I buy, and check for grease - some have just a tiny string of grease only on one side, not enough - and plastic cages. Don't know who thought a plastic cage would hold up in a wheel bearing, bad idea. Those seals push back on easy. I make an effort to get American made, but they're getting hard to find for some applications. I really think the quality in imported bearings Harley uses is inconsistant, work fine for most folks, but way too many failures being reported to think they're all good. I've thrown away bearings in a brand new wheel before putting it on the ground - had plastic cages in it. 50 years ago you could trust bearings...

 

Not a surprise to me...I had two wheel bearing failures under warranty on a new bike...first at six k and the next at thirteen k...second one, no warning, did twelve hundred bucks additional damage at 65 mph...not fun.
Second time the tech at hd told me in front of mgmt. That they were junk after 08...showed me the new ones he was putting in someone else's bike, already had rust on them from the box...and then he went to install them...
I had them ripped out immediately and replaced with timken...cheap life insurance...a whole set of quality bearings is less than thirty bucks...
Ps the hd tech also told me the hd ones, where ever they are manufactured, they put practically no grease in them...

 

It sounds like this is an issue with multiple models and worth just replacing.