we do this in our heavy duty mechanic shop with EVERY new bearing we install, in any application where they rely on their own lubrication. we go so far as to wash out the supplied bearing grease with varsol and replace with our own. some would be surprised how little grease there is in some bearings from the manufacturer. we have never had a bearing fail on it's own on any of our equipment following this practice in over 50 years of being in business.

 

Looks like they have a made in the USA steel bearing as well only $60.

https://www.brocksperformance.com/St...1470+C437.aspx

 

When you build 300,000 motorcycles and each bike has 4 of them, saving a buck on each bearing is a big number. Does wonders for the product gross margin reports.

 

Power washing is the enemy of Harley wheel bearings had that issue with my 07 UC my OCD made me power wash the bike often moisture was the main cause for bearing failure. Once learned my lesson had 78K no trouble with wheel bearings and now I've 15K on my new Limited washed only once very carefully around all the bearings front, rear wheel and steering head bearings.

 

That is still almost double what the OEM one costs. No deals from that place. I called a couple bearing distributors, one showed a listing for the ABS bearing but was locked out from ordering the F*A*G bearing as it showed as proprietary. Tempting to order one just to see what kind of bearing it is and where it came from.

 

Absolutely Punjabi HD ! Described perfectly. I've seen people hard spray their wheels bearings and all. I do the same thing you do when I wash my wheels taking care not to wet my bearings. I think what you said is the number cause of bearing failure. I've seen bikini girls at dealerships washing bikes doing that. They don't know the difference between a bearing and a trunk lid. Once done, that's one thing that can't be undone.