Hello all.This is my  introduction and my  unfortunate experience  in one,  i'm new here so hopefully I'm in the right place .very early yesterday morning  riding on my way to work the  rear wheel  bearing failed, I didn't know that's what it was at the time it just felt like the back wheel was gonna come off , I'm what  seasoned riders would describe as a newbie, so saying the rear wheel felt like it was gonna come off  might be a slight exaggeration,  all the same it was quite unnerving as I was pushing her  just the way they are meant to be , the bearing  completely disintegrated!!!  damaging the brakes , rim  to the extent it has to be replaced and drive belt,I Live in Denmark WA and  travel to The Albany Port  every day, that is 100 km plus  round-trip  and have been loving my new 2015  fat boy low S,  no traffic lights ,no stop signs ,just good open country roads .  I would've thought that at 3500 km  that bearing had  barely  started its life, I picked my bike up November  so I have only been riding her for two months . Two  year unlimited kilometre warranty  covers bike damage ,but my confidence is slightly  tainted now .Rolling up to work, new bike  on the back of a tow truck ?  Any  of your thoughts  this would be appreciated  Regs LOFB 

 

 

 

 

Welcome, haven't heard of that with so low Kms on the bearing, could have been a far worse outcome, bad enough experience getting a flat tyre at speed, follow up post with the dealers take on the bearing failure.

When you replace the bearing do not go for the Harley ones. Go for a good quality Japanese brand one.

Once apon a time wheel bearings would last more or less forever...them were the days.

You are not Robinson Carusoe on the wheel bearing issue mate. However 3500kms seems to be ridiculously low kms for it to shit itself. Fuck! that is before you would wear out your first tyre.

 

Welcome mate. That's Bullshit. I'd be getting on to the place you bought it new from and get them to replace it under warranty.
Sure, wheel bearings fail. but not like that and so quik.
Did'nt you hear anything at all in regards to a preeminent failure?

Welcome... it's not an exaggeration saying it felt like the back wheel was coming off.
Had one go on my ol street glide doing 110 ks down the freeway, friggin scary.

6k worth of damage. In saying that it was a renegade wheel, belt, belt guards, air shocks etc
all under warranty thank fuck as I had just bought the bike from a dealer 2nd hand and was covered.

Although you situation is diffrenr,I would have thought you would be sorted

Welcome to the Forum.

What an intro......keep us informed of how it all goes.

 

Thanks guys  for your  imput  and suggestions,  Great Southern motorcycles here in Albany Western Australia  where I purchased my bike from are doing the repairs under warranty , parts to come from Sydney  so could take up to a week for supply  and the fix.  They've given me a bike to loan in the mean time . Im going across to see them tomorrow as there is a small chance the parts may  arrive Saturday I really want to know what bearing they are replacing it with and  the brand of the bearing that failed ! 

 I'm not too savvy with the computer so hopefully I'm   replying  to everyone   Who welcomed me and replied  to my post  Thanks again 

Warranty....
everything will be replaced with genuine parts. Those parts will also carry a HD warranty.
Doubtless too they'll look for collateral damage, as a competent technician should.
There's quite often damage to associated parts you could easily miss.

Welcome to the forum, it's an unfortunate introduction. Hopefully speedily remedied.

Good news the GSMC are helping out with a loan bike and hope they find the cause of the failure.

Thanks Hilly it's good to read others experience with this , also a comfort to here I should not have to do this again. No  guarantees though. Im not sure I will find out the root cause of this bearing failing .

2009 the rear wheel bearing failed on my 2008 FXSTC Softail Custom. Just out of warranty

Within 700K's of Frasers replacing the rear tyre ( the ONLY job I don't do myself !)

Bike starts firing out ball bearings on the Brookton Highway 50K's out of town.

I ride home up the Tonkin with the back wheel shimmying 2CM side to side , and again into Frasers the next day

"Bad batch" of bearings they told me at the time , no labour cost to me , I just paid $60 for "upgraded" bearings.

When I pointed out to them both wheel spacers were 180 degrees out and THAT caused the bearing failure 700 K's later.
I was asked " What the fuck do you know ?"

Hmmm , that's why my job ended up being "free" ( as it always should have been...!)

After that , with both spacers the right way round on the axle , I did another 50,000 K's on that bike with no repeat dramas

LOFB.
That's shit bro.
I literally had the same issue last Thursday.
2016 Low Rider S. Just over 4k on the odometer. 380kms from home, 100km from where I was going.
And yeah same thing, welded the bearing to the axel, wheel is fucked brake disc is fucked. turned the axel. Smashed the wheel speed sensor to pieces.
Except I'm been told they wont have a new wheel until the middle of FEB. WTFF?

Hopefully they sort you out bro.

Can't believe Harley have not started putting quality wheel bearings in their bikes.

Obviously there is an issue and it has been there for a while.

I needed tyres on the bike so went to the local mechanic.
When I picked up the bike he showed me the back wheel bearings he changed after approx. 15000ks.
I had a good look at the bearings and they were rusty.
He asked if I used a high pressure water cleaner to clean the wheels.
I hadn't but I reckon the bloke before me did.

Thanks again guys for your personal experiences and recommendations, I appreciate your imput , My bike is still on the stand as they seem to be having trouble sourcing the correct bearings , first consignment of parts were supplied with the incorrect bearings , it Seems parts have to come from Sydney ,Im along way from there .

56000KLM on my std street glide bearing, rain hail shine never had an issue

That is pretty good going Pauly and what one might expect.

Perhaps you oughta do a "pre emptive strike" and change em next time you do a tyre change?

? nut to tight

could be any number of things, but more plausible is cheap bearing and an apprentice using high power wash ends up washing grease from bearing

 

axle nut compresses swing arm to spacer to bearing centre race,to inner spacer to other inner race to next spacer,caliper support and other side of swing arm,all tight and solid,no timken tapers here.if all components are correct there should be no excess axial load on bearings,i'll stand corrected if i've got it wrong.cheers.