Think I'm rather lucky

A few weeks ago whilst on a ride I heard a scraping sound, almost as if something had tangled under the fairing. Get off to have a look, nothing there – everything seemed OK. Carry on with the ride and don’t think anything more of the noise.
A week later a similar thing happened, again just for less than a minute and then goes away. Last weekend was Pam’s first ride on the bike in month’s – we only went to her flat and back, a couple of miles – heard a whistling, the scraping and then a high pitched metallic grating noise. I was behind a tram at the time and initially thought it was that which was making so much noise.
Put the bike on the Abba stand and give a once over, again all seems fine – chain's alright, tyre not wobbling, pads seem good, umm. Go for a ride Sunday and all seems good, until I am about 4 miles from home and the grating started again, it goes after a few seconds.

Take it to the mechy yesterday and described the noises and my thinking that the rear bearings were shot. He takes a look and says it was the front bearings which had gone, the rear is fine, no movement in the wheel. Get on the bike and not gone 10ft the grinding starts again. Take it back today and he is baffled, by now the noise is almost always there, he thinks something plastic is making the din. Eventually he takes off the back wheel and the bearings had collapsed, not just the wheel bearings but the carrier bearing too. How on earth have I managed to go through 5 bearings in one go!

The really scary thing is thinking the distances and what I had been getting up to the past few weeks - have been a bit spirited (by my standards). If any of those bearings had decided to seize I’m certain I’d have been spat off, very lucky escape.

Time to ask Mr Yamaha some searching questions if she's chewing bearings up at that rate    ???

After all you did mahoosive mileage on the last cat and didn't have this problem. And if memory serves, which it probably doesn't after my angry cat post, you used to get "spirited" on that too . . . especially chasing down an errant female rider at BC from time to time   

I did have issues with SC1, but not all at the same time. Rear collapsed 80 miles from home, that experience kinda made me think it was the same thing -   and it did the dirty on DBD when the carrier bearing locked solid whilst he was moving   , but that bike did more miles before it started to play up.

You think the common denominator here is me   

SteveCat wrote:

You think the common denominator here is me   

Meet the new diet . . .   

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What is that?   

your breakfast, lunch and tea. all on one plate.   

Hey Steve glad they did not let go & throw you off. Don't ever remember people complaining of rear wheel bearings causing problems prematurely on here or the American site.

Do you power wash the bike regularly? That can force the grease out & water in to the bearings.

Paul

Steve, it's one of those 'light salads' Radar keeps mentioning, but never actually orders.
Pretty insubstantial init?   Bit like your bearings!  

yamahamad wrote:Do you power wash the bike regularly? That can force the grease out & water in to the bearings.

I did with SC1, but the washer was very low powered (Woolworths special, more noise than squirt). Had thought that was the cause then. This one hasn't been power washed (not under my watch anyway), used to have a hand pump spray, a Hozelock modification of their garden sprayer now use a 12v pumped unit but the water output is less than a garden hose on low.

Two theories here, one is as has been pointed out above - I'm a tad too heavy for the bike, not helped with all the paraphernalia I load onto it too. I've no idea how the suspension has lasted then, an uprated spring on the original SC1 shocker, it's done I guess well over 120k miles.
The other is possibly rough treatment by the spanners and hammerers at the tyre place, have always used the same crowd. Previous tyre change, the guy was in a bad mood and didn't have the patience to put the Scottoiler back properly. I get the bike home, put on the stand and found he had tightened the axle so much the wheel wasn't turning properly. I needed to loosen the axle bolt to sort the Scottoiler and when I finished the wheel was turning alright. I keep having speedo pickup drive issues and suspect they manhandle the fitment.
Next time I may just have a go myself.

Jetwash springs to mind too, along with errant use of 'muck off' or similar, I know that stuff played hell with my Triumph & that wasn't very old!

Glad your OK Steve, scary what can happen

Aye, glad it's it's not resulted in a spill mate. I'll be checking mine as soon as I get home!

Oldcat wrote: . . especially chasing down an errant female rider at BC from time to time  

That's what the whining noise was  

Crickey Steve - glad to hear it wasn't 'noticed' at speed.

Hope the replacements aren't too expensive.

Cheers
Rosco

ellie wrote:

Oldcat wrote: . . especially chasing down an errant female rider at BC from time to time  

That's what the whining noise was  

    
No, . . . That would have been the rest of us blokeys at the side of the road waiting for two riders return . . . could've prolly been 'eard County wide 

jeeez, sounds like it could have been nasty, but glad was all ok steve and that the issue was found out.

on the way back from BM last year I had a puncture and got some new tyres, the dealer I took it too noticed that my front wheel bearings where at the end and close to going the mechy sad I was lucky I had the puncture or it might not have been picked up..... while I was doing 80 down the m6 to home, slightly scary thought

Rosco wrote:Hope the replacements aren't too expensive.

I guess it wasn't too bad, figured he charged 3 hours labour and £20 for the parts ~ 170

Oh and I got some souvenirs, I let him chuck the front ones away yesterday, in tact but very lumpy movement.

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MrNutt wrote: while I was doing 80 down the m6 to home, slightly scary thought

It sure is Dave

0ldcat wrote:

ellie wrote:
That's what the whining noise was  

No, . . . That would have been the rest of us blokeys at the side of the road waiting for two riders return . . . could've prolly been 'eard County wide

I didn't hear any whinning, mind you maybe I had the music up too loud   

Remember this

  @ Nick waddling!

Are they for sale?

Wow! Just glad nothing sinister happened Steve.
Think I'll be checking my bearings this weekend.

At least your ok Steve, that's all that matters!

Just to add a bit of perspective, I had an Aprilia Futura about 10 years ago and the same thing happened, a screeching noise, the it went away. I used to ride from Sailsbury to Blackpool and back on this bike every oweekend to see the wife, some 500 mile round trip.
Well this screeching kept happening, but I couldn't find the problem until mid lean on a roundabout when the inevitable happened, and the back wheel locked up temporarily with a huge crunch!
I stayed on, and was only a mile from home luckily, so I nursed the bile back.
2 of the three bearing had destroyed themselves, and supply price from Aprilia was, wait for it...... £170!!!!!! Speciallly made bearings just for that bike. I nearly cried.

Yes I remember that feeling well!!
I didn't get any scraping or grinding noise. The rear wheel just locked on me. Luckily I was on a straight. I dread to think what would've happened if it had locked on me mid corner.
Maybe worth changing the carrier bearing and seal every couple of years as a precaution. It's not a big job to change but if it goes wrong it could be fatal.

Wooster wrote:Are they for sale?

You interested   

Been battling with the wording, so far I have got

Experienced bearings with highly polished internals and some scratch marks, but no longer in the original packaging, sensible offers considered

 

 

You could trade as Cherished-Parts.Com   



£170   
Falling off would have hurt less.  



-edit- You could maybe start a Cherished Parts Gallery where everyone can show their worst bits.