Had my tire changed on my 2014 FLX. Bad wheel bearings at 16K miles! Makes one wonder! Anyone else feel this is a bit pre-mature on such an important part of your bike? I do, anyone else have premature front bearing failure on a low mile well cared for bike?

 

Yes and yes.

 

bummer...guess I better invest in a bearing puller

 

Just had both front wheel bearings replaced under warranty on my 16 Road Glide Ultra with 14k miles. if you search the forums is a common issue. A lot of people replace them with each new tire to try and avoid issues on the road.

 

btw... what are the signs that a bad bearing displays

 

Going to replace mine his winter on my 09 King, wish I would have done it last year when I changed the tires. Good thing you caught it sooner rather than later.

 

14k on my 16 RGU, as well.

113k on my 2010 Road King.

 

Jack the bike up and rotate the wheel by hand. If the bearings are on their way out they will grumble and not run smoothly.

This is a long-running problem, my '07 Firebolt needed new bearings with it's first tyres at less than 5k miles. Fortunately for that bike the bearings are common across many brands and my local Yamaha dealer had them in stock.

 

The fronts are garbage. I change mine out when I do tires. Cheap insurance.

 

I believe the culprit is usually poor seals, lack of enough quality grease inside, or both.
My 2011 RKC is still rolling along just fine, never been pressure washed either.
I also ride a full suspension mountain bike a lot in wet muddy conditions. Original suspension bearings played out early. Replaced with Enduro Bearings with a good triple lip seal and good grease, no more failures. The seals on the original bearings were cheap, loose, and hardly a decent seal. When I compare what my mountain bike's bearings deal with, and consider what our motorcycle bearings are exposed to, it MUST be a lack of consistent quality control on these motorcycle bearings. I would not declare the motorcycle bearings environment to be all that bad, really.
Man, really, what else could it be? I wash off the gritty, nasty mud off my mountain bike suspension bearings all the time, our motorcycle bearings stay relatively clean.
It is not rocket science. It's just a straight axle bearing set up. Jeez, the MoCo needs to get this right!