3 months ago I replaced the rear wheel bearings on my XT600 with KYOTO Bearings #6203 2RS C3 these are a SEALED bearing.

They are sealed at the Factory so contain sealed in grease and should last many thousands of miles right? wrong!!!!!
I noticed that after just 1100 Kilometers (700 miles) my bike was starting to waggle is backside like a teenager at a Disco, so i decided to have a little look. to my horror the rear wheel bearings were worn.
I took the bike into Motos Alvi in the Village today as I did not have any new Bearings and hoped he may have, good old Antonio........ he did have....(OK it took him 45 minutes to find them under all the junk but they were indeed the right size) we took the wheel out, removed the bearings and i prised the sealing cap off.

Bone Dry! No Grease! Not even a Smear! the other side had grease but not much. Antonio removed the Dust caps on the New bearings and guess what? Just a Smear of Grease!!!!! we soon remedied that and put a good dollop in there of HMP graphite stuff. sealed them back up and reassembled the Bike.

Antonio was in a good mood and only charged me 15 euros including the bearings! Result!

So good people, check those Bearings, Dont trust the Factory. I was suprised at it failing so soon.... it will be going into a padded bag with a nice letter........ I will keep you posted

Martyn

Thanks for the tip, Martyn, I will certainly check whether there is grease in the sealed bearings next time I get the wheels off on any of my bikes. It seems it's not only the bike manufacturers who neglect to grease the steering head and swing arm bearings of new bikes, even bearing manufacturers appear to skip the grease. I guess it's the easiest and most cost-effective strategy to sell more bearings...

When you buy new bearings, you never trust the amount of greese thats in there. You have to pop one side off, and fill it with greese, but not just put some in... you need to fill it up and turn the bearing around and then push more greese in there, keep doing so until you do not think that you can fit in any more. This then is fit for use. NEVER trust the manufactures.

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I repack my bearings with a water resistant type which are normally used in boat trailer bearings or outboard motors. If you are fording rivers, the two most likely bearings to get wet are your wheel bearings. Even if they are sealed, they are not water proof and the existing grease becomes emulsified and will eventually cause the bearings to fail.

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Tim ('91 R100GSPD)

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