nearly tragic

[dtkid]

OK...I used to wonder if this could possibly happen and now I no longer wonder...it can and does happen.

I left work to get my son at school yesterday (on my 80' GS1100) and out of nowhere a screeching metal-on-metal noise burst from the front wheel. The entire bike was pulled immediately to the right and I was just able to get it over to the grass and gently lay-her-down.

I picked the machine up and inspected the caliper/pads/disk and found nothing out of the ordinary. So, I walked it for a short distance to insure that the event was over. I was only about 1/4 mile from the house so I started it up and rode it on home.

When I got home I put it on the center stand and checked for "wiggle" in the front wheel. Sure enough, she wiggled; ever so slightly but there was a wiggle. I replaced the wheel and now all is well.

Question: I had no hint that the bearings were bad; not once had the wheel squeaked and fact is, I always coast the machine (motor off) down the mountain to check for undesirable noises...................however, I think the bearings got sideways or broke the casing and caused the rather unsettling incident. Do ya'll think that the bearings caused the wheel to semi-lock and nearly kill me? Has this ever happened to anyone before or do you know that it is possible?

Am I correct in my assumption or did something else cause this?

[Nessism]

Go inspect the bearings. You should be able to spin them with your hand.

[bwringer]

Why did you replace the wheel and not just the bearings?

[dtkid]

I had an extra wheel. I will replace the bearings on the original wheel.

[Dave8338]

A bad bearing can cause a car/truck to pull to one side...a bike, most definitely! You change the resistance of rotational force on a gyroscope (your front wheel) and you've got problems.

[Nessism]

I had an extra wheel. I will replace the bearings on the original wheel.

Don't just go replacing parts, inspect the old parts first to find the cause of the problem otherwise you many "think" you fixed it, only to have the REAL problem show up later and put you down on the ground.

[dtkid]

Dave:

I'm a believer. I reckon I never expected that the bearings could move around (pitch and roll) in the race and/to cause a resistance increase. In addition, I never expected that it could occur so quickly and without warning.

[spyug]

I haven't experienced bearing failure on a bike but have in a car and the experience was very similar. Back in the 70s I ran a Lotus Elan Which had ( in the rear) stub axles fitted through two roller bearing in the Macpherson strut( damper). Driving to work one morning on the highway in the fast lane doing about 70 mph the back end suddenly shot to the right and took the car clear across 3 lanes into the ditch. I had no knowledge of it about to happen and I don't, to this day, know how I missed the other cars. The Elan didn't even role as it went in the ditch.

Getting the car in the shop we found one of the bearing had melted and fused (welded) itself to the stub axle causing it to lock. It took a 2o ton press to punch the axle out.

After that, I got very keen on keeping wheel bearings well lubed. Anytime I get a different bike I always change the wheel bearings no matter the age. A bit of work but cheap enough for the parts and good for peace of mind.

As mentioned, you should try and determine what actually failed so you know you have indeed fixed it.

Glad you didn't come to harm.

Cheers,
Spyug.

[focus frenzy]

yep it can happen, not very often but it does happen.
I knew a parts guy at the local freightliner dealer who had a 93 gsx 1100G and one of the front wheel bearings locked up on him and put him in the ditch.

I remove and inspect my wheel bearings every two years and or replace them at the same time I am doing tire/s.
you can match them up and get equal or better quality bearings for less from a bearing house or auto parts dealer.

[t3rmin]

At the very least I check for heat at the wheel hubs after a ride once in a while.

[1980GS1000E]

A bad bearing can cause a car/truck to pull to one side...a bike, most definitely! You change the resistance of rotational force on a gyroscope (your front wheel) and you've got problems.

Resistance difference without a change in play would not result in a motorcycle being pulled to one side. The wheel is a single piece. On a car there are wheels on either side. Now, if there was a bearing failure, which is what happened here, and that resulted in a significant amount of radial play with regards to the bearing, then that could result in the bike being "tugged" to one side due to the lateral wheel movement.