My Exciting day and Possably New Death Experiance!

[Nytrate]

Well, Today was a wonderful day! Beautiful, Sunny ect.

As Some of you may know (if you read my first thread) I was hearing/feeling a grinding, scraping noise from underneath my bike.

Sense it was nice out today, I decided to enlist my brother and to go his house (Cause he has a Garage and Tools) To Try and figure out what was going on!

So I get up on the freeway, the entrance ramp is a long banked corner that you can usually take fairly quick. When I get to the entrance ramp the bike felt very loose, unstable. Felt like it wanted to be laid down. Odd.

Anyways, I am on the freeway, Going about 70MPH, After a Couple minutes of riding my XB9R Started to act weird, wobble, sway side to side, shimmy.
Than it got violent, Extreme wobble, from side to side. I managed to get to the shoulder of the freeway.

I looked at my rear wheel and My wheel bearing was shot! The wheel was wobbling 2 Inches Side to side!

Called up my bro, had him come and put my bike in his truck and back to his house to get this sorted out.

Lastly, We got the bearing out. Holy shit it was FUCKED. here are some pictures and a Awesome Picture I snapped while waiting for my brother with his truck on the side of Interstate 5.

I sourced the Parts I need, Kind of Pricy.

http://www.americansportbike.com/shoponline/ccp0-prodshow/17320.html

http://www.americansportbike.com/shoponline/ccp0-prodshow/17170.html

 

[DustyXB]

Damn man! Glad you got over safe andsound though. What year is your bike? Pretty sure they had to do a recall on the 03's. Easy way to tell was if they were orange. Im guessing yours was never done.

 

[xtremelow]

Here is a cheaper alternative for the bearings, well you get the front and back for the same price as just the one set off ASB. I bought mine from the same seller [up]

Ebay Auction #320577048487 for Buell Wheel Bearings F/B

 

[onelogue]

$40 for bearings isn't too bad. But its clear that whoever had your bike before you liked to wheelie/ abuse the bike. I would definitely make sure you get caught up on all maintenance before riding again.

 

[Nytrate]

Oil change is next.
I found this


what other maintenance things should I do?


I just replaced, Front blinkers. with some R1 Blinkers I had laying around lol

Replaced bulb in tail light.

Things to do:

Replace Rear Tire
Oil Change
Fix High beam
Change Brake Pads

Any other maintenance stuff I should do before I get her back on the road?

 

[bfletcher]

Yes, ATGATT!!!! [up]

 

[bfletcher]

All the gear all the time= ATGATT

 

[Sirius815]

Glad that the wobble/shimmy did end badly! That bearing is FUBAR! How many miles do you have on the bike?

 

[uly luigi]

Same thing happened to my Uly, make sure you double check the swingarm, the spacers for the rear wheel are cast into the arm, there should be some good flat surfaces left on the inside of the axle holes, and if they got chewed up, you will have to use some kind of spacer and line the wheel up manually, as in H-D has to do, even worse, when you torque down the axle, you could squeeze the swingarm too much, causing excessive stress and cracking the swingarm, if they did get screwed up, a machine shop could resurface them and measure for spacers, or you will have to buy a new swingarm, please check this stuff before you ride, and good luck, brother

 

[crxtasy169]

Get youself the manual from buellmods.com they are free and it has all the maintenance schedules in it.

 

[upthemaiden]

The bike looks great aside from the back wheel! I still prefer lightnings more, but the more I look at them the more I start to like the firebolts.

$40 for bearings isn't too bad. But its clear that whoever had your bike before you liked to wheelie/ abuse the bike. I would definitely make sure you get caught up on all maintenance before riding again.

Bearings aren't cheap, I've paid $45 for 1 bearing that size before. Is there something else that makes you assume he doing wheelies and abusing the bike? Those old bearings were known to have problems and it could've just been general neglect from not checking on or replacing the bearings. Either way still definitely a good idea to give the bike a good once over. That axle looks a little rough too. if it still fits tight into the bearing you should be fine, but if it feels like there's any play where the bearing rests you might want to look into a replacement for that too. I've seen people selling them used on here for $10 though, so I wouldn't waste your money on a new one if you can find one used.

 

[DustyXB]

Just noticed two things. You probably shouldn't let your caliper just hang like that from the cable. And even if you have the 04+ belt, i personaly wouldn't bend the crap out of it like that. If you don't have the newer belt id suggest buying a new one.

 

[Nytrate]

Theses about 10K Miles on the bike. Previous Owner told me he just recently replaced the drive belt, Plus it looks fairly new. I am gonna be doing a good once over to make sure everything else it working right and make sure she is running good!

 

[Ronin1]

But its clear that whoever had your bike before you liked to wheelie/ abuse the bike.

What makes you say this?[confused]

Jim

 

[americanthunder]

your right those things are pricey but not as pricey as the tow truck and ambulance ride when the old ones lock up. good to hear you made it off the road safe hate to see a rider down harley prick or jap bike ass just dont like to see anyone go down

 

[acidbath]

same thing happened to me last year.then about 2 months later i was takeing the bike to the dealer to have the headlight recall done and the front bearings went out on me.that was a lot worse than the rear bearings going out scared the hell out of me.

 

[dave_xb12r]

[up] for keeping her upright!

 

[agfish18]

glad you had the sense to pull over instead of ignoring the signs of impending doom. [up] for not crashing! Parts will never be cheap. Shit, HD charges $1.50 for a single screw... rediculous.

 

[Nytrate]

It would have been very stupid and extremely hard to ingnore the signs of that! It was wobbling SUPER BAD. Extremely fast. Very scary.

I am very happy I didnt put her down, And so was my fiance!! haha

All in all it isnt going to be to bad to get her back on the road again. Should be done by this week.

 

[konarider94]

so did you check the front bearings?