150K WOW

Added for Eric V. and others.

100K Club

Congrats to Eric! Even if he is a Car-tire whack-o bastard! And all the other 150k dudes.

Bummed I never got to get the '300K' badge. Or if I do it will be a looooong time from now. *ONLY* 239k more to go on the current FJR!

Still lonely in the 200k club - nobody to drink with! Who's gonna step up?

It's nice to make it to the 150k level. But damn, that Super Tenere is starting to call my name. I may have to see if I can still drop a deposit down.

The Feej stranded me for the first time with a right side front wheel bearing failure on Wolf Creek Pass just outside Pagosa Springs, CO, but I managed to limp in to P.S. and the local shop, (which rocks, Pagosa Powersports!), took care of me with some overnight ordering of a bearing kit.

Good stuff! Well done.

Wow. A bearing failure! After all those miles.

There could be worse places to be stranded. What a cool town. I need to actually stay there overnight sometime. How was the weather? Not so nice?

What were the symptoms of the impending bearing failure?

What's with the over night bearing order? All bearings are standard and available at local supply houses. You should have known.

SkooterG said:

Wow. A bearing failure! After all those miles.

There could be worse places to be stranded. What a cool town. I need to actually stay there overnight sometime. How was the weather? Not so nice?

What were the symptoms of the impending bearing failure?

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P.S. was not a bad place to be stranded. A little spendy on the food, but had rockin tacos tonight and a habenaro sause to die for at the local taco place. Outstanding asian food too.

Weather? Full monty baby! Snow, thunder, lightning, rain, more snow. It was pleasant on the way over the pass on Tuesday, but Wed was the full spectrum and today was pretty much snow with sun breaks, then more snow, then more sun breaks. Just a little rain now, but tomorrow looks good. Considered making a run for Durango after the bike was fixed, but opted for drinks in the hotel room and tomorrow departure instead.

The only impending symptoms were a tiny bit of play in the front brake lever. First squeeze of the lever had just a tiny bit of extra slack, then full feel afterwards. The run up the pass with the twisties was good, but started to feel some crunchyness at the bars when in a lean. Not a repeatable rhythm at first, but became more pronounced and obvious that it wasn't road bumps as time went on. Once I started down the pass, the down hill twisties made it obvious that bad things were going on. Crunchy and every turn was obvious that the wheel was not stable.

Secondary was that the brake pistons were getting pushed out, either by heat or just the wheel free play. So, first grab meant no brake, just lots of lever squeeze. After three squeezes, firm lever and semi-normal feel on the brakes.

Secondary effect of the toasted wheel bearings was that the pads chewed the hell out of the inside of the brake rotors. Now, mine were already on the thin side, so no big deal, but the gouging is quite severe and the rotors are TOAST now. The shop couldn't get the pads in, just the bearings, so I'll take it easy on the front brake on the way home. Oncw home, some replacement rotors and Yamaha pads are in order.

edit - @ Racer - Dood, you haven't been to Pagosa Springs. Local bearing supply shop does not exist. It's a tiny town at up in the Rocky Mountains and it's snowing here. I was friggin happy to be able to get over nite shipping!!

Total bill was $148 for parts, shipping and labor. All in all, I'm good with that. Would have preferred it to happen 5 miles from home so I could do it all myself in the garage, but shit happens.

Edit #2 - They found that I had about 1/3 of the bearings left in the sealed bearing on the right side. I don't think it would have made the ~50 miles to Durango w/o damage to the wheel or axle. As it was, tough to get the damaged bearing out and it came out in pieces. Wheel hub is ok though and new bearings and dust seals went in fine. Good for another 150k.

OCfjr said:

Oncw home, some replacement rotors and Yamaha pads are in order.

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Look for rotors on ebay. Otherwise they are spendy bastards. Recently I scored a rear rotor for about $25 shipped.

Excellent synopsis - thanks. Bummer it happend out on the road so far away (from everything). Though really Eric, if you would have put your thinking cap on I am sure you could have found a bearing supply house right around the corner. You know, that corner that is a couple hundred miles away.....

SkooterG said:

OCfjr said:

Oncw home, some replacement rotors and Yamaha pads are in order.

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Look for rotors on ebay. Otherwise they are spendy bastards. Recently I scored a rear rotor for about $25 shipped.

Excellent synopsis - thanks. Bummer it happend out on the road so far away (from everything). Though really Eric, if you would have put your thinking cap on I am sure you could have found a bearing supply house right around the corner. You know, that corner that is a couple hundred miles away.....

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Great, (cheap) minds think alike. Already spotted some for a good price on ebay. If I was smart, I'd have been carrying a set of bearings and dust seals on the bike after say... 120k. Not like this hasn't been reported before at about the same mileage. Doh!

OCfjr said:

Not like this hasn't been reported before at about the same mileage. Doh!

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Really? I wasn't aware. I rarely see reports of them failing and when they do it seems it can be at any mileage.

I had approximately 115k on each set of my wheels. Original bearings each with no problems.

racer said:

What's with the over night bearing order? All bearings are standard and available at local supply houses. You should have known.

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Pagosa Springs isn't exactly a striving metropolis. It's quite a ways from Colorado Springs or Denver.

Wheel bearings? Crap, one more thing to go wrong <_<

Eric, I guess you weren't close enough to the ocean to blame the failure on salt air. Perhaps now it the desert dust? Or could we blame extra loads on the front end from that car tire?

It isn't like you rode that bike other than on Sunday's in the summer

Pagosa Springs is better than Burns.

I haven't searched the forum, but seemed to recall one or two other wheel bearing failures on the front at the ~150-160k range. Could be mistaken.

Aside from the usual road riding, the only thing different lately was that little 4 mile jaunt up the dirt/gravel/rock "road" off Hwy 95 in AZ that runs up to the Intaglios view points and fenced areas. Some rocky washes and lots of fist sized rocks bouncing off the pipes for some of that ride. :huh: Wasn't going fast though.

The girl does need some maintenance though, so will be diving into that once we get home. I am considering a deposit on the S-10 though as the Feej isn't getting any younger.

A darkside S 10? Humm....

I'm not sure a DS S-10 would be possible, or desirable. That said, I'm really digging the DS on the FJR and would consider it for any bike. Alaska seems to be on the books for '12, and Prudoe Bay has seen it's share of FJRs, but me thinks the S-10 might be a better ride for the Haul Road.

Got the repair and headed out in the snow from Pagosa Springs this morning. Made it over the passes to Durango and Cortez w/o trouble and the weather improved from there. About 5k in the last month, so time for an oil change again and some more involved service now. If you're ever in P.S., do check out Pagosa Powersports and do check out Kip's Grill & Cantina for some excellent chow.

OCfjr said:

Got the repair and headed out in the snow from Pagosa Springs this morning.

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So, WTH good is that roll of duct tape you carry around if you don't use it to fix stuff like failed bearings .

Good2Go said:

OCfjr said:

Got the repair and headed out in the snow from Pagosa Springs this morning.

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So, WTH good is that roll of duct tape you carry around if you don't use it to fix stuff like failed bearings .

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Pffft, how do you think I made it into Pagosa Springs in the first place. 5 wraps of 200 mph tape = 10 miles, then repeat.

edit: Besides, the duct tape and wire ties are mostly for putting sport bike plastic back together when I encounter one crashed. BTDT too many times.

OCfjr said:

I haven't searched the forum, but seemed to recall one or two other wheel bearing failures on the front at the ~150-160k range. Could be mistaken.

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My front wheel bearings failed at about 130K, I think.

John Ryan

"There's Absolutely No excuse for the Way I'm About to Act"

https://longerfasterstronger.wordpress.com

Does anyone replace the bearing seals as preventative maintenance in an effort to max. distance from the bearings?