Rear wheel bearing destroyed after tire replacement

Peckrobe

Peckrobe

Registered
Hello all, i own a 2011 busa, have had it since new and have babied it all along, it has 48,000 on it and last week I had the front and rear tires replaced a local shop. after only 150 miles, the rear wheel bearing was destroyed, the race and bearings were litererlly slivers of what they were, I attached pictures. The shop owner told me that the bearings, brakes, etc... all looked good when he replaced the tires. I took the bike back to the shop yesterday and he is saying that this has nothing to do with the tire replacements. My bike is currently at his shop, i have little trust in this guy. Question to those in the know, is there any relation to changing a tire and destroying a wheel bearing?

shop info:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/ct-motorcycle-tires-reseda

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MC2.jpg


MC3.jpg
 
Its hard to screw them up on the bird . My 2014 lost a rear wheel bearing after 7000 miles new so @ 48,000 you did good . just replace them all . FYI no one ever has worked on my bike but I . Only thing to say is they looked good statement is exactly that . Bet if one had put two fingers in the inner bearing race , and twisted he would of felt it was going bad . In their defense though FEW owners would of said ok keep it , and replace them . I'm sure they didn't have any in stock either . I know big city Houston didn't have any when mine went out .
 
From the looks of it they specialize in tire replacements , and have good reviews . The Axle nut is 72.5 lb of Torque . I doubt those guys over did it .
 
one of the 5 star reviews copy / paste

Excellent customer service, open on Monday and great prices. Very thorough on torquing every bolt to spec. Great guy to chat with. Highly recommended.
 
Could it be related? Possibly. But could have just as easily been time for it to go after 48,000. It doesn't appear that the tire shop displayed any blatant negligence on their part, and like c10 said the reviews don't really paint a picture of a shady establishment. I would chalk this one up to the mileage gremlins unless you have any other indications of poor performance by the mechanic...
 
^^^^^
Bearings do not fail overnight, there is a gradual degradation and that will be noticed long before the catastrophic failure you had. Dealer mechanic did something he was not supposed to.
 
Reviewing photos more closely it looks like the brake side wheel spacer is missing in photo were the caliper hanger is against the wheel/bearing.

Did the other two on the drive side fail or just the brake side ?
 
I have a little more to add here, and left it out for the sake of keeping this drama free as possible however, here is more context.

Last Thursday when I went to the shop for the tires, the owner/mechanic was in a very foul mood, he was swearing, throwing things and just an ass. When he mounted my rear tire the first time he realized it was on backward, then the swearing, throwing of things, dropping things etc,... continued. I finally approached him and let him know that he was worrying me and that he could take a break if he wanted, let him know i wasn't in a hurry. He calmed down but damn, how can you act that way when working on a customers bike? Yesterday when i had the bike towed to his shop, he apologized for his behavior but still did not take responsibility for the wheel bearing. For what it is worth, he was nice enough to offer me his BMW R1200 full saddled bike to ride home and commute to work while he works on mine, i took him up on it and squeezed it through 40 miles of gridlock traffic, and was able to split lanes without scratching anything!

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c10 said:
Reviewing photos more closely it looks like the brake side wheel spacer is missing in photo were the caliper hanger is against the wheel/bearing.

Did the other two on the drive side fail or just the brake side ?
Click to expand...
to me looks like a lot is missing, just ridiculous!
 
chain was too tight. easy to do on the busa because when you compress the suspension there is a lot more tension in the chain. this happened to me and same result. there is a thread on it with pictures on here.
 
fallenarch said:
chain was too tight. easy to do on the busa because when you compress the suspension there is a lot more tension in the chain. this happened to me and same result. there is a thread on it with pictures on here.
Click to expand...
do you have the link to that thread?
 
As said, bearings go bad over time.
If it was that bad when the wheel was first removed, it would have been noticeable, riding and looking at it.
150 miles of riding with a spacer missing, causing it not to be tight, and wallow out and come apart...yep, every time.
As far as a chain being too tight, it could, but you would hear the chain popping on the sprocket teeth.
The teeth would show noticeable wear, as well as likely break teeth.
So he was in a bad mood, put the wheel on backwards, then noticed and flipped it around...and it really looks and seems like he made a mistake from there. 5 star rating or not, we ALL have bad days, and that's when it's time to walk away and take a break. Not always the easiest thing to do for a business owner, but an option you clearly offered.
Then he just gives you his bike to ride. Sounds like that's his way of owning his mistake.
Can a bearing be bad at 48000 miles, and fail 150 miles later? Absoloutely.
It's easy to speculate from our computers, but it looks like a mistake on install, not a coinsedence.
Good luck with it.
 
In addition to new bearings I’d take a close look at both sprockets and the chain links (every one) for unusual wear or cracked rollers. Even a slight wheel wobble under strain over and over will take out those components. Put some pretty red cush rubbers in the hub while you’re at it. Then you’ll have a fully upgraded and refreshed driveline with nothing to worry about for miles and miles.:D
 
sixpack577 said:
As far as a chain being too tight, it could, but you would hear the chain popping on the sprocket teeth.
The teeth would show noticeable wear, as well as likely break teeth.
Click to expand...

Nope. Bike ran great, better than when the chain was lose. Smooth and quiet. Then the bearings went out - first sign of anything wrong. I got a shimmy. Tried to make it to a stopping place. Slowed down. Got worse then rear was unusable - huge wobble. Stopped on road and got it home in a trailer (thanks AAA).
 
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