[MikeCMP]

Well,

Not that anyone would remember, but over the winter I did the triple bypass, had Larry go over my carbs, and changed the front wheel bearings. When I got back on the road my average milage had gone down. I checked the gamut of stuff, rubbing brakes, fuel mixture, but since it ran fine I eventually just figured it was the way it was and that was it.



However, I did notice that when I leaned the bike the disc would squeak. Thinking the forks were flexing I got a hefty fork brace, but the sqeak & lean continued. No, I began to suspect my front wheel, and my not so carefully installed bearings. So, I happened to want a 18 inch rear rim anyway, I got the matching front comstar too, and got a new tire put on it.



Guess what - that new rim (only 13,000 miles on it) spins noticibly more freely than my other rim. I just came back from a 300+ mile trip, and got 52 mpg over two tanks, in the PA mountains.



So.



Could the front wheel bearings have been to blame for this all along? My axle has a little wear now, where the bearingstouched it, that almost indicates to me that the bearings were in fact not spinning freely enough, and thus had just enough drag to bring the milage down.



Any thoughts on this?



Thanks in advance,



Mike

 

[InWeldingWeTrust]

Mike

thats very possible. If the inner races were worn enough ( particularly if more one side than another, then the axle will tilt, the wheel will tilt and all manner of drag can occur. People tend not to notice developing faults on their own bike as they ride it al lthe time but someotimes other people can feel strange things. I bet when riding "straight" the bars were not quite central most of the time as the leaning axle will cause a permanent slight caster of the steering head ( so that all thats out of line, becomes aligned). All this probably stemmed from what was a long time ago just a "gritty" bearing

c'est la vie

I have seen all manner of dire wheels over the years, normally caused by people who beat the bearings in ( usually drifting on the inner race rather than pull it in on the outer race, not because they are daft, but just because they dont know. I always check wheel bearings for true because I always adjust my bare rims plus discs etc to balance to zero so that I know that any balance weight required is only required by the tire. That way when I buy a tyre I know if its any good or not, as there are a lot more bad things to be had in a tyre other than runout!

 

[MikeCMP]

Mike

thats very possible. If the inner races were worn enough ( particularly if more one side than another, then the axle will tilt, the wheel will tilt and all manner of drag can occur. People tend not to notice developing faults on their own bike as they ride it al lthe time but someotimes other people can feel strange things. I bet when riding "straight" the bars were not quite central most of the time as the leaning axle will cause a permanent slight caster of the steering head ( so that all thats out of line, becomes aligned). All this probably stemmed from what was a long time ago just a "gritty" bearing

c'est la vie

I have seen all manner of dire wheels over the years, normally caused by people who beat the bearings in ( usually drifting on the inner race rather than pull it in on the outer race, not because they are daft, but just because they dont know. I always check wheel bearings for true because I always adjust my bare rims plus discs etc to balance to zero so that I know that any balance weight required is only required by the tire. That way when I buy a tyre I know if its any good or not, as there are a lot more bad things to be had in a tyre other than runout!

My steering head bearings were bad too. That is unrelated, as I did use a hammer to drift in the wheel bearings. Now I know better.



Mike

 

[Blindstitch]

It's always a good idea to replace things even when they are slightly out of wack.

 

[Crshndbrn]

speaking of which, wasn't there a link at one point to the replacement wheel bearings for these? Do they fit GL500 and GL650 alike... front and rear?

 

[Blindstitch]

Yeah they're identical. But that's Sheps territory. I think they were on ebay sold in singles for $2.50 shipped. Need 2 per wheel.

 

[MikeCMP]

You also need to press them in and not hammer them in like I did

 

[Crshndbrn]

You just have to hammer straight.

 

[Toehead]

I like to use a socket that matches the diameter of the outer race to hammer them!

 

[KjellM]

Hammering in a bearing is okay but as Toehead mentioned, you must use something like a socket that is the size of the outer race and you must hammer it in straight.

 

[BikerMike]

I kinda doubt that a slightly loose wheel bearing would cause a serious drop in gas mileage. A slight sqeek in your brakes while in a slow turn is not really too uncommon, the pads run very close to the disc when to being used and the small diameter forks on the 500's will flex enough to cause the pads to close the few thousants needs to cause a sqeek..When u mentioned that on a mountain ride, your mileage went up. I remember trips thru the mountains that my mileage on differant bikes went up 5-10 MPG ... maybe something to do with thinner air or just riding style when in a mountainous area. New wheel bearings are a very good idea tho... gives u a more secure feeling... Good Riding!! Mike

 

[BikerMike]

I kinda doubt that a slightly loose wheel bearing would cause a serious drop in gas mileage. A slight sqeek in your brakes while in a slow turn is not really too uncommon, the pads run very close to the disc when to being used and the small diameter forks on the 500's will flex enough to cause the pads to close the few thousants needs to cause a sqeek..When u mentioned that on a mountain ride, your mileage went up. I remember trips thru the mountains that my mileage on differant bikes went up 5-10 MPG ... maybe something to do with thinner air or just riding style when in a mountainous area. New wheel bearings are a very good idea tho... gives u a more secure feeling... Good Riding!! Mike

 

[BikerMike]

I kinda doubt that a slightly loose wheel bearing would cause a serious drop in gas mileage. A slight sqeek in your brakes while in a slow turn is not really too uncommon, the pads run very close to the disc when to being used and the small diameter forks on the 500's will flex enough to cause the pads to close the few thousants needs to cause a sqeek..When u mentioned that on a mountain ride, your mileage went up. I remember trips thru the mountains that my mileage on differant bikes went up 5-10 MPG ... maybe something to do with thinner air or just riding style when in a mountainous area. New wheel bearings are a very good idea tho... gives u a more secure feeling... Good Riding!! Mike

 

[MikeCMP]

I kinda doubt that a slightly loose wheel bearing would cause a serious drop in gas mileage. A slight sqeek in your brakes while in a slow turn is not really too uncommon, the pads run very close to the disc when to being used and the small diameter forks on the 500's will flex enough to cause the pads to close the few thousants needs to cause a sqeek..When u mentioned that on a mountain ride, your mileage went up. I remember trips thru the mountains that my mileage on differant bikes went up 5-10 MPG ... maybe something to do with thinner air or just riding style when in a mountainous area. New wheel bearings are a very good idea tho... gives u a more secure feeling... Good Riding!! Mike

Third times the charm

I have the tarrozi fork brace, so fork flex should be at a minimum. I'll run through a few tanks of gas before I pronounce it fixed though, and it does seem odd that my mileage might suddenly go up.



Also we were only in PA and not really in any serious mountains, the highest elevation on my gps was around 2000 ft I think. My normal elevation here is 1200 feet.



The bearings were definitely not spinning right, and I feel bad since I basically wasted money on them since I think I ruined them installing them. Oh well...



Mike

 

[InWeldingWeTrust]

Mike

Dont feel too bad, we have all done it at some time or another!if I had a pound for everything I had screwed up over the years I would be a lot better off than now!

but how else do you learn

At least the CX uses simple plain bearings so as mistakes go, it was no biggy

Many years ago I finished a Sanders and Lewis TR750 Replica bike ( an exact replica of the at the time current suzuki F750 racer). Being a smart ass I dropped the genuine works 750 motor freshly got from Suzuki Gb back in the days when Martyn Ogbourne was team mananger, out of the outfit I was racing and stuck in the bike so I could run a "legal" GP bike on the road. Wore shorts on it when I rode it down the rd and popped it on the back wheel, and the zippo lighter came out of my pocket, went straight down the bellmouth of the middle cylinder and seized the whole lot solid bending the crank, smashing the cases and dumping me on my arse

so dont feel too bad - at least I did prove that smoking damages your health