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[Grumpy110]

I thought that I would start a new thread just in case someone else has started to note the same symptom.

Over the past couple of months I had begun to hear a "whirling" noise in the front end of my bike. I asked the dealership to check the entire front wheel assembly and they found nothing wrong.  This past weekend while on a lengthy road trip with a fully loaded bike I started to note an intermittent vibration in the front end. I stopped numerous times to check my bike, but could not see or feel anything wrong with either the tire or the front wheel...air pressure etc. were all okay.  As I continued towards home, the problem worsened eventually leading to a high-speed wobble.  After a slow and very scary ride back home I took the bike to the local dealer. At first glance they said there did not appear to be anything wrong.  The mechanic said at first he had not noted anything when he checked the wheel. After a short road test around the block said he felt some very minor play in the bearing. The mechanic then decided he would road test the bike out on the highway.  When he returned he advised it scared him so bad at highway speed he considered parking it and calling a tow truck.  Once they removed the front wheel they discovered the wheel bearing was worn to the point it had damaged the hub.  He has never seen anything like it in the 30 years he has been in the business.  This bike only has 20,000 km. on it.  They are not sure of the cause. I purchased used and have only power washed it once.  The original owner had only owned it for about four months, but he of course, could have power washed it daily.

[skreminegul07]

Very scary.  It's so different with 4 wheels, than 2.  I was trying to determine a wheel noise on my Camtry and was sure it was left rear whell.  I had it checked and nothing found. Went to a different dealer, it was the wheel bearing.
In my lifetime, I've only replaced one front rear bearing, and it was easy to find, screamed while turning corners.  We would replace a lot of rear axle seals and bearings due to a seal leak, not bearing failure.
Wheel bearing failures are rare, but on a bike, the circumstances can be much worse.

[grc]

One of the drawbacks to the modern sealed bearings is that we no longer get to take them out, clean and inspect them, and then grease and reinstall them on a regular basis.  Back when I did that, any sign (even just imagined) that the bearing was starting to go would result in a new bearing being installed.  Now they are supposedly lubed for life and require no inspection/cleaning/etc., and they are subject to the same problem I found many years ago in the auto business with "lubed for life" ball joints.  That design is only as good as the process and quality controls in the manufacturer's plant, and I found one supplier had a real glitch in his automated grease application.  Some joints only got about 10% of the grease they were supposed to get, which didn't do much for reliability.

BTW Grumpy, that bearing didn't have "Made in China" stamped on it by any chance?  Might have had some of that melamine they seem to dump into most products added to the grease.

Glad you found this before it failed completely.  It's downright scary when a bearing fails and you've only got two wheels keeping you from hitting the ground.

Jerry

[Grumpy110]

"...that bearing didn't have "Made in China" stamped on it by any chance? "  Didn't check, but do see a lot more foreign parts on these bikes.  Made in USA, really "U.S. assembled"? 

Mechanic said l was lucky to make it home safe as it looked close to catastrophic failure and the front wheel locking up. Not something I would like to experience at 70+ miles an hour!  This started out as what I would describe as a slight whirling noise.  Not a sound that you would take as being serious...nor did the dealer the first time I complained about it. What's scary is that we had been on the interstate traveling at very fast speeds for hours without noting any additional noise etc.  We had stopped for a few minutes then when starting out again I noticed there was a serious problem in the front end. But at that point the front end was not making any unusual noise even the whirling had stopped!  In fact, other than the whirling sound it never made any unusual sounds like you hear with car wheel bearings. I did notice the front end was less stable then my previous bikes but thought that the front end just needed heavier fork oil.

Rob

[mr_magoo]

I had the same issues a while back try this link http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=23899.msg385329#msg385329