To my mind it's all Pointing to 1/ fault in the manufacture of the bearing /2 possible incorrect installation of the bearing or possibly both .Brucefxdl l believe your explanation of bearing - axle configurations eliminates over tightening , I don't believe in my case high-pressure water is possible as the bike hadn't been washed ,plenty of riding in the rain though but that's not gonna do it . What about as mentioned before overtightening the drive belt? Also axle spaces being 180° out though this would have had to of happened on production line in the states ? And if that was the case the workshop should have picked that one up here as they were dealing with bearing fail ,so should've been looking closely at installation causes, though they may not pass that on information on to the consumer .