ULYSSES DANGEROUS REAR WHEEL BEARING FAILURE

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My Uly has never been near a pressure washer but the rear wheel bearing on my 2007 Uly failed after 12months and 5k miles repaired under warranty. At the time the service manager said 'that's the third one recently must have been a bad batch...' It was not a sudden collapse but a gradual deterioration over a couple of days

I was so annoyed i filled in the ride magazine survey and ended up being invited to a track day and appearing in the mag!

As for exhaust I've had a Remus since new together with ignition mod = no problem.

Ken
 
i had to replace mine also the macanic said that thereis nothing i could do because the bearings are inclosed it cost about 3 bills
 
Just had mine done, when the garage phoned HD they said I was lucky to get anything over 3000 out of them.

I paid £25 for each bearing and they got them from an after market supplier.

Fingers crossed they last a bit longer this time. This is the third set since new....
 
20k miles on my firebolt and no bearing problems anywhere except the engine
wheel, swingarm, and steering stem bearings all in awesome shape

but I have a rear wheel bearing give out on my Blast after ~7k miles on it, I believe this was due to the dealership damaging the bearing on re-installment, it did not appear as though they properly aligned the spacer and things when they torqued it back together, but it was out of warranty and I ended up footing the bill because I had no choice

bearings fail sometimes, not much you can do about it
 
my rear, belt side went today... 2600 miles! the bike has had 4 grounds go bad, causing me to lose ALL lights at around 600 miles... and at 2500 miles i lost directionals... Danbury Harley was backed up this week, so i figured i can use my hand signals... and today, at around 60mph i felt this evil wobble, like i popped a tire or something... on a parkway, cars all over and i've only been riding for 2600 miles... managed to get over safely, and friend picked me up... i had to drive it to the next exit with a trooper behind me (harley rider who stopped to see if he could help) think the wheel is shot too?
 
I'm on my second Uly...15k miles on the first and 37k miles on my current ride. Absolutely no problems with either rear (or front) wheel bearings or electrical ground points. Furthermore, I'm riding Aussie roads...not the best in the world. I think some of you guys are just unlucky.
 
my front bearing went out at 2500miles and that bearing was made in north korea I love my xb 12 but will upgrade all bearings when out of warr.they are great bikes !
 
Japanese bikes also has bearings, most likely same manufacter as buell use. So, would it be better for you to walk?
 
05JUN2010 Fort Walton Beach Florida 18,050 miles on my 2006 XB12r Firebolt. 4 miles from home and I heard a crack! I yelled at my buddy to see if my rear looked wobbly, because it felt wobbly. Stopped at a whataburger to see the problem and sure enough my right rear wheel bearing is gone. Don't know the full extent of damage. Because it was also raining. Yeah, scary! Wobbly rear end in the rain! How hard is it to do this repair myself. I think a Honda dealership may have caused my bearing failure, for the fact that they just put some new tires on my Buell last week. But I just wanna get this done so I can get back to riding. I wanna do this repair myself. Looks pretty easy, I just need a way to keep the rear off the ground, but my apartment complex manager doesn't let us work on our vehicles in the parking lot or even do oil changes. Like I said, looks simple enough. As long as I have the tools and the talent. How long should this take? 30 min?
 
I rode a Ulysses over 60000 mls. I had to replace rear wheel bearings regularly. First one after a tire replacement by a Honda dealer. He had used to much torq to tighten the axle. Later I discovered that the spacer was about 1 mm shortened because of that action. Because I drive the bike all year round the bearings suffer a lot and have to be replaced more often. Other then that the bike gives almost no problems.

Except for the belt. About every 18000 mls it breaks.
 
I have 25000 on mine (06) and have had no problems but since I have read the thread, I am about to change them. I remember reading on here somewhere about drilling "weep" holes in the hub. Can anyone point me in the right direction for this information?
 
Actually most of the time you can catch the bearing failure.The bearings are sealed bearings with grease inside them.Of course,nothing is sealed from water.Anyway some signs are 1 light squealing sounds to loud sqealing,2 when wheel turns,it feels like the brakes are slightly applied,3 shake the wheel left to right.the tighter with no movement the better.You can check it jacked up or down.With practice you can feel the movement.
Some ways that prematurely wear the bearings is water (as I said no seal is water tight)Pressure washing around the bearings forces water in the seals,I doubt a lot of people try to ride through creeks and puddles,but that will do it,and by squirting oil on the bearings,the oil will brake down the grease,and then that means no lube,and of course failure.
If you are out on the road,and get the squeal,and the tight wheel,the of course oil it to lube it enough to get home,Go slow.There is almost always a sign,you just have to look for it.
 
maybe he took the whole peso remark for what it was,BS and decided no further posts were warranted.:D
 
Well I just had my second set of rear wheel bearings fail on my 07 (that I purchased in Feb of 08) at 11400 miles, the first set was around 5200 miles. I was lucky enough to notice they felt bad last year when I had tires mounted and the dealer replaced them because it was still under warranty. But now it is no longer under warranty and I did not notice it until it was too late. By the time I was in an area where I had cell coverage the damage was done. Now I am going to have to replace the swing arm and wheel. I guess I will replace the wheel bearings every time I put a new tire on just to be safe because there is no reason for them to fail this fast since I perform regular maintenance on it everything to factory torque specs and I hand wash it.
 
I've been reading through the wheel bearing issues, then searching for parts. Anyone have any input on brand (part numbers) other than straight from the Buell dealer?

I've not had problems with any of my Harley wheel bearings, but that's a different monster.

Just wondering if anyone has any good experience with a specific brand or source of bearing.
 
I had a catastrophic failure of my rear bearings at about 13,000 miles, went to the local farmer/atv parts supply house with the one bearing that was still in one piece, and he matched it up with one for a 4 wheel ATV, haven't had a problem since, I will check the part numbers when I get off from work this evening
 
Good rear wheel-bearings for an Uly are:
SKF 6006-2RS1
These are standard bearings which can be bought almost everywhere because they are used for many applications.
 
There might be something happened to wheels while the bike was in the garage, check the whole twice and make sure that pun intended or not. and remember one more thing Squeeky wheel gets the grease very fastly. and maintenance is also a important factor, which should be keep in mind.
Regards Golf Carts
 

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