That's a fact. They are crap. 20k on. Imy 2011 sg and the front bearings were shot. Never had a wheel bearing fail until I bought a new bike. Very unhappy. What do you want for 20 grand.

 

Changed mine out just for good measure at 100,000 miles and they still appeared fine. New replacements at 23,000 now and no issues.

But these are the '00 to '07 double row bearings, not the '08 and later cheapies.

 

So... is there a quality alternative to replace the stock ones with?

 

The front wheel has 2 bearings, the rear has 4 (all 6 are the same part #) I have not read about anyone with a failed rear bearing or bearings, it is always the front.

I also realize that not everyone experiance's front wheel bearing failure, in fact it is probably a very small percent that do.

For a few extra $$ when I replace the front tire I get new wheel bearings and
don't have to wonder if the bearings will last until the next tire change, in short it is just a personal choice JMO.

 

I guess these bearings are a stock size. The original ones will be engraved with a variety of numbers and these tend to be common through the bearing industry, so any bearing supplier should be able to offer alternative brands of the same size.

I took a worn out shovel front wheel bearing into my local auto parts store and he told me it was the same as a popular Ford outer front wheel bearing - he had them on the shelf, so how many did I want?!

 

I had my front wheel off while changing out the forks. As I was putting the wheel back on, the outer cover of the bearing fell off and chunks of dried grease dropped out.....25k miles.

 

I changed mine when I changed my tires. My friend has a 2011 RG and he had a front wheel bearing failure at 6200 miles, while on a trip.
I checked with my local bearing shop and replaced the Harley bearings with NTN 6205LLU/2A, half the price from what Harley wanted.

 

any time you have the wheels off put your axle in the wheel and shim it up so you can torque in down and then roll the wheel feeling any roughness in the axle.

 

97,000+ on my 2005. YMMV.

 

I run a 2011 Street Glide wheel. I put the 1" double row bearings from the earlier bikes in before it was installed.