Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Wheel Bearing replacement intervals???

Okay, so I skate outta work early to take a ride....jump on Black Beauty and off we go. It had been awhile since I had her good & warm so I head out to the country to "open the throttle" and get up to 70ish mph when I start to hear a ringing sort of whine coming from the front wheel. So, I slack off the gas and the ringing whine quiets completely when I get her down to 65ish mph.

So, I'm thinkin "let's check that again". Back up to 70, then 75, & to 80 mph & the ringing whine is cleary audible. This can't be good! So I lay off the throttle & roll home keeping under 60ish til I hit town & "go with the "posted limits" mostly.

Back in the garage I pulled the front wheel to check for any sign of wear in the spindle/axle.....looks okay (axle & bearings greased up pretty well). I kinda rolled the inner races of each by hand to see if I might "feel" any wear (binding/notchyness) & both seem okay. With 14750 on the clock should I consider replacing the wheel bearings? Or can I get away with just cleaning/repacking the original stock bearings? I looked in my shop manual & didn't find any discussion on wheel bearing service intervals/replacement or the like.

Any comments/info would be appreciated.

I think the bearings are permanent lube sealed type. Should last a really long time.

May have something else making the noise.

I agree with Bill. Bearing failure is not a regular occurrance. I did have to replace a front at about 14K but I am convinced it was a premature and unusual thing. there was no sound or vibe. Was found while getting a front tire. The bearing was heavily rusted and pitted. When removed I could feel the grinding while rolling on my finger tip. My wrench said his opinion was cast wheels were the culprit in some cases because condensation in the hub is greater. I don't necessarily buy that though. I think the premature failure was more likely due to seal failure that allowed moisture in - either the result of manufacture or assembly. Anyway, never a problem since and I know no one with a similar situation. Have about 40K on the replacement.

Hmmm... ...Okay...like I said the bearings seemed fine on inspection...so if it's not the wheel bearing making the whining ringing sound at highway speeds...what might be the source????

I suppose it could be the gremlin bell ring in the wind stream chasin those little buggers away...

Check your chain guard. When mine broke it made a ringing/rattling sound.

check that new speedo cable you got

Hearing something on the bike can be really deceptive too. I had this rattle/whine that I could not for the life of me pin down. Sounded like the front end. After a season of dealing with this and the dealer tech saying he had no idea either I finally figured out it was my tank. My shade tree mount I made for the tank wasn't holding it down tight enough.

Slightly OT

At certain speeds I keep hearing a high pitched whine almost like police sirens. I can't locate it but if its not just my paranoia (I check the rear view mirrors) I suspect it's a certain wind resonance maybe in my helmet or across the mouth of the aftermarket horns or something. But it usually kicks in just over the posted speed limit.

Chain guard is okay.....locktite is wonderful stuff.
Speedo cable?..... ....maybe the drive unit @ the wheel could use some grease....but I'll lube both the drive & the cable just because ya know...
Tank? Nahh.....been there with the loose tank before...it just rattled against the upper frame tube....only cause I didn't quite get onto the dogs...
Tire pressures are okay (I check em before I even throw a leg) There is a bit of tire noise when running down the road.. but not that it concerns me. Running Metz Marathons w/ maybe 4K on em.
No police sirens either.

Really.....it sounds kinda like a bearing...but not really loud or shrieking... just a low pitch ringing that increases in frequency at high speed...

I was thinking it might be the front rotor (EBC floating type) ringing twixt the brake pads.....possible warpage??? (don't feel/notice any wobblyness or lever pulsing when appying the front brake tho) & there is virtually no excessive runout measured (both front & rear rotors were well within spec) on em either.

floating rotors shouldn't warp, that's kind of the point of them

have a closer look at speedo drive and speedo ring !!!

Well, I know it's not the front rotor for sure. Pulled the front wheel again....just because and gave the wheel berings a thorough inspection.....all is good there. Wilst at it I pulled the speedo cable too, gave the cable sleeve a good cleaning & relubed both the cable and drive.

The speedo drive & ring seemed well lubed before but I figgered some freash grease wouldn't hurt....

I haven't been able to get back out to see if that made any difference...but the first realtively windless day above 50 deg. I will take BB for the "handling run" to listen for the illusive ringing/whine.......

Though you might be referring to some other issue Karl, there of course is the "whine" which emanates from inside the engine cases as our bikes reach certain engine speeds and comes from the primary gears as they reach a certain harmonic level. And thus, isn't really anything to worry about.

Now you may have something there Dwight! The sound I heard was akin to that one can make by running a wet finger round the lip of a fine crystal wine/brandy glass!

The sound didn't seem to indicate a problem with performance as BB was running smoothly along ...but it did kinda me out...and hence my quest to determine it's source. It really sounded like it was coming from the front of the cycle rather than beneath me. But then again @ 70+ mph it's probably pretty hard to localize sound with any real accuracy.

Funny, I don't recall hearing anything like it on any of the other Triumphs I've owned over the years....musta been drowned out by the nice rumbly pipes/open headers I had on most of em!

That could be it. I never hear it very often though, probably the same pitch as the ringing in my ears