So 5000 miles in and I had new tyres fitted last week (second front, third rear). Noticed that one rear bearing was a little rough when we had the wheel off at the fitters. No spare bearing there and no time to fit anyway. Dismantled tonight and thought the following may be of interest:
Once they were out I took the seals off both bearings.

The brake side on the right here, was fine with about what I would normally expect in terms of blue almost clear grease over all components of the bearing. Bearing action was smooth with no play.

The belt side appeared at first to be full of black grease that pretty much filled the available space. There was plenty of play in the bearing too. I dissolved just the layer that was on the inside of the seals in thinners then inserted a brand new "stick" of 6mm neodymium magnets (see below) and retrieved a 1/2 inch blob of iron filings/rust from the thinners. Thats only from the thin layer on the inside of the seals, the majority of the crud was being squished around the bearings. Basically all the black crud was bits of c**p that had worn/corroded from the bearing faces and the balls.

I broke up the ball bearing spacer and separated the inner and outer races. Both are clearly pitted.

The bearing balls were not shiny either. There appears to be no wear in favour of either side of the race so it is unlikely this is an over tightening problem. It looks to me simply like moisture ingress has induced corrosion. The seals on the bearings did not appear to be damaged

The bike is never jet washed and I am careful about how I rinse of any wash solution with the hose pipe, knowing that these bearing are an issue. However I have done around 1000 miles of wet weather riding of the 5000, often at motorway/autoroute speeds.

Obviously new SKF bearings going in asap, front and rear........ shame there is no way of fitting a grease nipple. I am also looking into the possibility of fitting extremely high spec ceramic bearings as these are supposed to withstand poor lubrication for longer should similar happen and I am away from home.

_________________
IF IT BLEEDS WE CAN KILL IT ,THIS STUFF WILL MAKE YOU A GODDAM SEXUAL TYRANASURUS ,YOUVE BEEN PUSHING TOO MANY PENCILS DILLON .GET TO THE CHOPPER

Will they last 12 times longer than a standard set though

_________________
2001 X1 2009 1125CR 2006 Uly X3 2010 Uly a fully Maz'd S1 and a 1991 RS1200 Westwind.

_________________
IF IT BLEEDS WE CAN KILL IT ,THIS STUFF WILL MAKE YOU A GODDAM SEXUAL TYRANASURUS ,YOUVE BEEN PUSHING TOO MANY PENCILS DILLON .GET TO THE CHOPPER

Sent: 28 October 2010 01:33
To: Brian Wattam
Subject: Re: FTAO Dave Follow up enquiry on CB-6005-2RS Bearings



Hi Brian, we were supplying the Buell Factory Road Race team right before they closed their doors, we have done 100's of Buells for Street and Track , one of my friends Dan Bilansky won a few Championships on Buells with Bearings we supplied , here's a pic of Dan on his XBRR and you can see our sticker right on the side. A Ceramic Bearing will out last a steel 3 to 5 times longer, sometimes up to 8 times if the original bearing is designed into the part correctly. A Ceramic Bearing will have 1/3 more static and dynamic load rating, they are not fragile by any means, we have supplied almost all the USA Superbike teams with zero failures , Larry McBrides 5 second 248 mph Top Fuel Dragbike has used our bearings since 2000 with zero failures , he used to change rear wheel bearings twice a season and has gone 4 of 5 full seasons and they were still fine but changed in routine maintenance. The Bub 7 streamliner has run 367 mph with our wheel bearings trouble free, Bill Warner from Florida ran 278 mph on his Busa in the standing mile this past weekend too. Every NHRA Prostock Motocycle has run our bearings since 1998 or 1999. Let me know if you have any other questions, thanks Dave WWB USA

heres part of an email i receved two years ago looking into ceramic bearings from nimbus motor sport from there man in the states

_________________
IF IT BLEEDS WE CAN KILL IT ,THIS STUFF WILL MAKE YOU A GODDAM SEXUAL TYRANASURUS ,YOUVE BEEN PUSHING TOO MANY PENCILS DILLON .GET TO THE CHOPPER

I think I may have found another reason that wheel bearings are prone to fail.

With the axle out I reassembled the bearings ( whats left of the knackered one) and the spacer tube onto the axle. The spacer tube is half a millimeter or so larger in internal diameter than the axle to allow easy assembly. The problem comes at the unthreaded end of the axle. There is a gradual ramp up in diameter there, to allow easy fitting of the drive belt which then tensions as the bearing slides up that ramp onto its parallel portion of the axle. The problem is that the ramp does not move the spacer fully into line with the bearing. The parallel portion of the axle needs to be longer because the spacer is down on the ramp. The spacer is therefore not parallel with the axle and the bearings are being squeezed to it also at an angle. The movement can be felt on the threaded (brake disc) side bearing if you move the spacer up and down on the non threaded end. If you tension a soft spacer like this at an angle it will load up one side rather than the other and distort. The bearings will not be loaded evenly and failure will be inevitable.
I have seen this on a belt idler on our combine. Spacer between the bearings was not parallel. The bearings would go every 150 hours. I turned a new spacer out that was parallel and the machine has done 2000 hours since with no problems.

Obviously the axle step and the brake side swingarm will tend to pull those bearings parallel but I think they may be doing so under duress.

The first solution I thought of is to reassemble the axle/wheel with the bike lying at 90 degrees on its side so that the spacer is aligned vertically, resting true on the brake side wheel bearing : Not going to happen.

The best alternative is to have axles machined up slightly differently or to find a way of making sure the spacer tube is correctly aligned before the axle is put in. Given that it can be a bit of a wriggle getting the axle in, this would need to be robust so its no good holding it there with some heavy grease.
I thought about wrapping tape around the outside of the tube at each end as this would centre it where the hub is machined but that would then be destroyed once the wheel starts turning and could cause problems if there is any heat build up transferred from the brake or drive belt with it melting or chewing up and then damaging the inner bearing seals.

I don't know but I assume many other buells use the same system, just with everything on the opposite sides.

its common practice to change your wheel bearings on every tyre change

Is there anybody who has installed the 3 bearing kit available from EBR to replace the 2 bearing setup of pre 2010 1125's ? If so, is there any benefit(s)?

What 3 bearing kit?
Link?

_________________
"It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It's called living."
Terry Pratchett

You need the complete new 2010 style rear wheel as well as spacer and bearings etc .....the 3 bearing is not a retrofit to original wheels.

_________________
2001 X1 2009 1125CR 2006 Uly X3 2010 Uly a fully Maz'd S1 and a 1991 RS1200 Westwind.

its a lot of tyres in such low mileage, do you drag race it ?

The 3 bearing rear wheel is definitely an improvement, my 2010 CR has done about 11,000 miles and is still on the original bearings, and were fine last time I checked (at about 10,000).

The front is still crap though ...

Gunter,

Here is the link:
http://www.erikbuellracing.com/store/mo ... n-kit.html

I'm told that some of the 2009 models will be suitable for the installation of this kit in the existing wheel and that it will remedy some of the failures reported....
At $80 plus P&P and taxes for HMCustoms it still may be a sound investment....

I would guess you have to tighten it hard to get all the bearings in...

_________________
08 Specialized Langster

I think you've been told wrong ........................ you either have a 2 bearing rear wheel or a 3 bearing rear wheel ............... you can not physically fit 3 bearings into the 2 bearing wheel.
You can use the 3 bearing axle in a 2 bearing wheel but cannot use a 2 bearing axle in a 3 bearing wheel

_________________
2001 X1 2009 1125CR 2006 Uly X3 2010 Uly a fully Maz'd S1 and a 1991 RS1200 Westwind.