Wow. Of all the things that can happen on a bike (getting hit, falling off, etc...), wheel/tire failure is my only true fear. I am REALLY obsessive about it. Just the other day after just starting out on a ride, I SWORE that my rear wheel was loose. Felt like the axle loosened up and the wheel was moving laterally. Put it in N and coasted off the highway. Turned out to be nothing, but THAT'S how atuned to my wheels I am.

Glad you were able to keep the shiny side up.

 

I lost one going about 70 and was able to pull over. It made a huge racket and had I kept going it would have locked up. It was the old non sealed bearings. Now I pack every tire and replace every other tire. I have not heard of this happening on the newer sealed bearings (kinda scary).

 

WTF...a major safety component and they are failing on newer bikes? That is the stuff class action lawsuits are made of. Especially if people are getting hurt or dying.

 

I thought about belt tension. The rear has only been off once, 3k miles ago and then the stealership set the tension. I ASSume they set it correctly but we know how that goes. I really had no warning on this one. Since I was riding it to work leaving early in the morning I pushed the bike quite a bit farther than I normally do before cranking it so as to minimize the bitching from my neighbors about me firing it up before 6:00 AM. Even with pushing it an extended distance and with the dead quite of the morning it gave no hint of being tight. This thing just failed. I work in the racing industry specifically with tires. We have three failure modes, thump thump thump... thump thump boom... or boom smack! This was a boom smack kind of failure (no warning)

 

My computer illiteracy is rearing it's ugly head with the sig pic. I can't get one to post, tried several times. I know I must be doing it wrong somehow. LOL

 

What is a ballpark reasonable price for a stealer to replace bearings?

 

Don't know yet. I have been playing phone tag between flights. As I had feared the outer race spun and locked up the race in the housing. Long story short is I am likely in the market for a rear wheel.

 

Is it possible you applied a little too much torque to the rear wheel? Too much and the wheel won't spin freely.

 

yep, harley used to use Timken bearings i think and switched to cheap chinese bearings cause they were cheaper. i for one would pay a couple extra bucks for the proven ones