| Author | Message | ||
     Paralegalpete |
I went for a dirt road ride today with the Uly and a couple of other dual sport riders. here was the route  The route was not meant to go on anything more strenuous than gravel roads, as my scorpions are toast and have very little thread left. I have new ones in the garage as well as new bearings to install just incase. Garmin took us down a muddy lane We had just righted my bike  I swung my leg over the seat and put my right foot down, into nothing, I toppled over into a ditch of cold water.   I fell once more and twisted my knee. We continued on and ended up in Walters Falls  On the way home my bike started to shake uncontrolably and became unridable. Bearing was done. I had heard a few squeaks earlier in the day but they went away.  So we waited at the side of the road for two hours until my wife showed up with our trailer. Thanks to my riding partners Scott and Ken for not only the Uly out of the watery ditch, but for waiting with me in the dark to be rescued  (Message edited by paralegalpete on November 08, 2009) | ||
| Court |
Sorry about the bearings but it looks like one hell of a fun day! | ||
| Eulysses |
We need knobbies. We just do. | ||
| Alchemy |
Just looking at that Uly in the water and mud and I bet it would have been difficult for one person to get it righted. The bags had to be a help. Great pictures. | ||
| Rwven |
The "defective" red ones would at least get you to the first tire change! Just saying.... Looked like you had a great day up to that point. | ||
| Jphish |
Well CRAP! - there goes the end of RBA (reduced bearing anxiety) for us that did preemptive change. Looks like 'Spares' need to go back in side case with emergency belt. Sorry for the cold bath and bearing problems. I had a similar ditch experience on our Oct 17 'memorial' ride - longer legs now on back order. | ||
| Rwcfrank |
WTF 6K is not a lot of miles, did you ever submerge the bike or powerwash it? | ||
| Mnrider |
We have a saying-when your in deep your indecent,and you were in deep.  Those damn bearings! | ||
| Buewulf |
Bummer. Guess I should treat the RW bearings as a wear item every 5K for safety's sake. And I was looking forward to a motorcycle that required little in the way of time-consuming maintenance. All of a sudden, doing a valve adjustment every 15K doesn't seem like such a PITA anymore! | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Pretty soon somebody will report some other thing that'll happen once in awhile and a few of you will immediately start flopping on their floors in anaphylactic shock. Shouldn't be to fast to blame it on the bearings without any information other than one went bad. Too many here get their panties in a wad just because someone loses a bearing. That's why I grease my bearings once a season and/or every tire change and then know that the bearings are not dry or damaged. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. | ||
| Eulysses |
Electra...you pop em out and hand pack them? How do you grease em? | ||
| Paralegalpete |
No power washing, however I did run through a few puddles in August   I think I will go for the 2010 wheel upgrade, otherwise I will sell the bike as I don't like the bearing issue hanging over my head on a long trip. Funny thing is, I already had put the bike away, but yesterday was so nice, I just had to go. I've got new tires and bearings(just because) to replace in the off season, I just went one ride to many. As Court said, it was one hell of a fun day. No regrets. Just came back from the Doc, no torn ligiments, just sprained. (Message edited by paralegalpete on November 09, 2009) (Message edited by paralegalpete on November 09, 2009) | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Eulysses, Don't remove them, just use a dental pick or whatever to pop the outside seal. If you put a hole in the seal don't fret, it'll be okay. Finger push in grease and then push the seal back into place. Then smear Permatex anti-seize over the outside of seal and bearing for a good watertight seal and that'll seal any little injury to the seal that you may have caused. I do this anytime I remove the wheels for new tires or just to pm the bearings. I haven't had problems with my bearings...knock on wood. I gotta admit, that three bearing wheel sounds awful inviting. Should of been on the ULY from the get-go BUT me and others haven't been plagued with bearing problems and they aren't hard to take care of. | ||
| Buewulf |
Too many here get their panties in a wad just because someone loses a bearing.  Electra, that is so true. But the problem seems frequent enough, and the repair inconvenient enough that it would piss me off for a month if it happened on a long road trip far from home. Hell, even if happened just a 30 miles from home. I, like you, will be treating it as a maintenance item. Thanks for posting your method for lubing the bearings in place. Very helpful. | ||
| Rwcfrank |
So deep puddles and a rear wheel r and r..Hmmm | ||
| Eulysses |
Sounds like a little preventive greasing and carrying a spare would be a good plan...and someday a 2010 wheel! (how would you grease the inner bearing?) Neat that the Buell bugs all have a solution we can live with. Thanks Electra. | ||
| Ejbeert |
so electra do you have occasion to ride the puddles that paralegal pete does does your fix stand up to that when you do this maintanence do you have moisture inside your hubs thanks | ||
| Pso |
That is another one of the big loses when Hardley closed down Buell production. Every year Buell would correct problems from prior years and make them retro, so us that purchased the first Uly's could continually upgrade. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
If I was fording my bike through streams all the time I would expect to be having all kinds of problems with bearings even if I went and bought the 2010 3 bearing wheel. In fact, with the 3 bearing wheel I think I would be more worried about water than the original 2 bearing wheel. How would you do preventative maintenance on that 3 bearing wheel if it was submerged? There was brainstorming about filling the hub with grease. You'd probably have to remove the inner seals and then pump in grease through a zerk until the grease blew the outer seals. | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
Wasn't there someone here who drilled a little drain hole in the hub, because they found it was filling with water? Might be something to look into as preventive maintenance. | ||
| Rwven |
Next time mine go (I have SKFs in her now) I think I'll try some ceramic hybrids. Ceramic balls with stainless steel races. Should eliminate the rust pushing the seals away. (Message edited by rwven on November 09, 2009) | ||
| Uly_pirate |
Last weekend I replaced the red bearings on my 09XT with black bearings ordered from AmericanSportBike. The Uly has 11,500 miles. I was suspicious of bearings mostly due to threads on this forum and didn't want to get caught on the side of the road. I ride the beast pretty hard. I had already greased the red bearings once and thought maybe that was enough for a few thousand miles and it probably was. Now I have to preface this with the fact that I replaced the tires two weeks ago and as nature demands I picked up a beautiful brass screw in the rear tire. I felt something was wrong and hoped I would make it home in the rain. Wasn't terrible, but did the usual funny dance over painted lines and felt wrong in any turn. After a squirrelly ride home I discovered the screw in the tire. There was about 15 lbs of pressure left. I removed the wheel, patched the hole and replaced the bearings (front and back). Today the Uly rode like a dream. It glided over the asphalt. Maybe it just seemed smooth after riding home in the rain on a semi-flat rear tire. But I swear it rolls much better. Guess the proof is in the mileage. Will have to see how that goes this week. Usually get 44-46 mpg, but it has been more like 42-44 lately. As for the bearing replacement, that went better than expected. I bought the blind bearing puller from Harbor Freight and did all the work myself. Two of the four bearings came out with the slide hammer. The other two I had to hammer from the opposite side hitting the blind puller collet with a rod until the bearing broke free. Once the bearing moved I easily pulled it out with the slide hammer. This might have seemed easy because I just removed both wheels only a week before for the new tires, so all was fresh in my memory and didn't require too much reading of the manual (glasses are a PITA). Bottom line: I think I will be replacing bearings along with every tire replacement unless it's less than 5k. Then I might wait till next set. They're not expensive and better to do it while the wheels are off then under some other condition like while on a trip. Blind puller: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem. taf?Itemnumber=95987 Bearings from AmericanSportBike: http://www.americansportbike.com/ | ||
| Xbimmer |
Bummer. Guess I should treat the RW bearings as a wear item every 5K for safety's sake. Bottom line: I think I will be replacing bearings along with every tire replacement unless it's less than 5k. Do that and expect to be replacing a wheel before long. Bearing R&R can be damaging to a wheel, especially if they're banged in and out of there like some have done here. I inspected and greased my Red bearings like E_glider recommends and they lasted for over 50K. I only replaced them for black KBC's because the seals weren't sealing any more, hard from age. I don't care what the "official" line was about the cause for the failures, especially since KBC's can fail too apparently. I've always believed it was wheel-related. If I had the money right now I'd go the 2010 wheel conversion and drill the weep holes, and regrease the outer bearings with tire changes and be done with it:  No need to get rid of a great bike for something requiring a little preventative maintenance. Oh wait, HD already got rid of a great bike... | ||
| Xbimmer |
...and if you want to go the 2010 wheel and get the bearings pressed right, this is the way to go: http://www.americansportbike.com/shoponline/ccp0-p rodshow/17330.html $20 to press in the bearings is a deal. Al and American Sport Bike I trust. | ||
| Hughlysses |
+1 to Xbimmer's post. I got my 2010 wheel with bearings and seals pre-installed by Al. Wheel kit w/bearings and seals pre-installed and bolts for sprocket and rotor was $420 shipped. | ||
| Buewulf |
Do that and expect to be replacing a wheel before long. Cool. Then I'll have an excuse to pony up for the 2010 wheel! | ||
| Jammin_joules |
I have yet to try them but a Corsa M60 tire (160mm) is supposed to fit right up on the rim and is considered a 40% off road tire. I had Distanzas on, by Avon, and they were better than Scorpions, but not that much and their softer compound did not last all that long. | ||
| Jlnance |
Too many here get their panties in a wad just because someone loses a bearing. It's a lot more than someone. I've lost bearings, m2nc has lost bearings, 1313 has lost bearings. Given that that is 3/4 of the local Uly riders I know, that is pretty disturbing. If there weren't so many low mileage failures reported, it could just be treated as a maintenance item. But with the low mileage failures people report, it's hard to be confident in even that fix. I'm very glad the 2010 wheel exists. Hopefully that will put the issue to bed. | ||
| Xbimmer |
Cool. Then I'll have an excuse to pony up for the 2010 wheel! Then why not pony up now and sell or shelf your current wheel? Makes good sense, eh?  | ||
| Buewulf |
Then why not pony up now and sell or shelf your current wheel? Makes good sense, eh? One word for you my friend: WIFE!  | ||
| Xbimmer |
Oh, well that I understand brother...  | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
I hate to bitch and moan but I also have to chime in and say that my rear bearings BOTH went at the same time and at under 20,000 miles too. That's sucky. | ||
| Pso |
20K and my rear wheel bearing was starting to feel notchy. Replaced w/ black seals. Waiting to hear reports of durabality of new rear wheel before tossing out $400 for a new 2010 wheel. Maybe hold of for one more tire change.o next summer perhaps new wheel for me. |
