does anyone else think a ball bearing in the steering head will get flat spots in them. don't have much faith in any of the harley sealed roller bearings. i guess they weren't selling enough of the tapered timken bearings. i think you will see some failure of this new setup. why change something that's worked so well for so long, same with the wheel bearings. if it ain't broke quit trying to fix it.

 

***** have been used in steering head bearings since the dawn of time, no reason to be concerned old chap!

 

someone said the 2014 steering bearings do not need lubrication ,true?

 

I am suspicious that ball bearings are less able to "fine tune" a preset load for proper fall away setting. I don't know why the improved triple tree couldn't have retained the tapered bearings.

 

I've seen plenty of ***** in metrics, never seemed to have a problem, as long as they were adjusted right - but none of them were made in china, wonder where these new ones in Harleys are made? But those tapered Timkens sure were fine bearings; given a choice, I'd stick with them.

 

From what I heard the 2014's don't need lubrication because they are a closed sealed unit. My service tech said that the bearings would be changed after so many miles as per the service manual. Makes sense, just like ball joints, bearings etc on a car or truck, right???

 

Who boy... I can remember when the car companies went from tapered to sealed bearings for the axles and spindles. For a few years, dealers had 55 gal drums out back filled with old sealed bearings. Finally this stopped as the car companies dialed in what the bearings need to be.

I truly hope this 'learning curve' has already been went through on other bikes.

 

FWIW ... Roller bearings have a much greater contact area than a ball bearing does.

 

I replaced a set in my Dyna Fat Bob last year because they were notchy. When i pulled them out they had flat spots on them. I adjusted them too tight. They were not sealed and the lower one had a ton of sand in it

 

On my 99 I can grease the steering bearings, on my axels the beaings can be repacked, I have seen many sealed bearings fail on equipment because the grease dries out, another reason to keep my 99, plus timkin crank bearings and forged bottom end.