Looks like good old pressure washer damage to the bearing. The grease gets washed out and the bearing self destructs. MGvalerioi's bike always looked nice and clean!
Bearings are cheap and easy to change. He's lucky it did not cause an accident.
Snip...
I am not much for yelling about safety or becoming overly concerned about reasonably normal noises, wear, etc. but that is WAY, WAY outside of the normal envelope and needs to be fixed before riding the bike. Not sure how this will translate either but what you have there is NOT a Mary Jane Tinklepants situation.
Brian
It looks to me like the right axle bearing fried (horrifically overheated) and lost some of the needle rollers inside it. The interesting thing about those videos is that the rear wheel jumps out of alignment on the second revolution of the wheel, not each revolution. That indicates to me that what is left of the bearing is still rotating (probably just the needle retainer now and <maybe> a needle or two) and causing the oscillation to be out of time with the rear wheel. It also looks like the hub side of the rear wheel is supporting the rear wheel and causing it to turn pretty steadily and straight until the side- force from the brake application pulls the wheel away from that axis of rotation. I am not sure if this message will translate into Italian gracefully but I do not know how to make it much simpler and keep the meaning intact. ??
That bike is going to need a bunch of parts, perhaps including parts or even an entire new drive hub depending on how hot it got in there. The right axle mount is clearly shot as it badly overheated when the actual failure (I think bearing failure) happened. No doubt a new axle will be needed.
The usual mode of failure for wheel bearings is that the seal fails to seal, then contaminates enter the bearing itself and finally the bearing fails (rather than wears out). My 2008 C-14 is in need of a new rear wheel seal right now as a matter of fact. The wheel bearing is still fine but it won't stay that way for long unless sealed from water and road dust. By the way, I have replaced the front wheel bearing seals twice already on this bike and it is coming up on needing a set of front seals again, probably next summer.
I am not much for yelling about safety or becoming overly concerned about reasonably normal noises, wear, etc. but that is WAY, WAY outside of the normal envelope and needs to be fixed before riding the bike. Not sure how this will translate either but what you have there is NOT a Mary Jane Tinklepants situation.
Best of luck getting it fixed, and also good luck getting the factory to repair it. Not sure what Kawasaki's stance is going to be about this but it will be interesting to hear how it goes.
Brian
The rear wheel bearings are # 6304 UU. The UU means sealed both sides. 6304-2rs is the same(2 rubber seals..) It is a standard deep groove radial ball bearing. (no needles) They are sold at any industrial supply . Lots of them on ebay for around 5 dollars. Bearings last as long as the seals keep contamination out .
Pressure washing is the worst thing to do to a bearing. That thing must have been making plenty of grinding/rumbling noise for a while. Surprised he didn't hear it.
Its exactly what it seems to me from the video.
Don't need to translate because that's what I just told valerio on the phone.
My concern is that Valerio knows his bike better than most of C14 owners and he never felt a typical behaviour of a bearing worn out because of dust or lack of grease.
He just noticed in his last trip that he was having an abnormal slightly higher than usual fuel waste (figure how sensitive he is ) and that when he slowed down on a winding road he heard a very feeble abnormal sound.
Luckily he stopped to check the rear wheel and noticed the disaster: one more cm of metal left and a pit hole or a higher speed could have caused a dramatic accident.
He had to call a towing truck to (slowly) bring back home his beloved bike
Even if the bearings failed why does it look so messed up at the axle and swing arm? Could a bearing have seized and spun the axle? Then un-seized?
One thing that I think is very certain is that a catastrophic failure has taken place in the rear wheel's hub and the damage is now probably spread beyond the hub itself. For example, with the wheel bumping off axis like that when the brake is applied, it is possible and maybe even likely that the rear rotor is now bent.
Brian
C1xRider : So how many miles (kilometers) were on these bearings?
KM 47.000
MGvalerio.
C1xRider : So how many miles (kilometers) were on these bearings?
KM 47.000
MGvalerio.
Wow, that's only 29,200 miles! Has the rear wheel taken any hard hits, like from really bad roads, or from a prior accident? As I recall, you don't presure wash your bike. I've had damage to trailer hubs and bearings from hitting bumps (more like holes in the road), but would not expect it on a bike.
Perhaps that bearing didn't get enough grease when it was made. They don't put much in them to start with (actually scary how little they have). I believe it's pre-planned obsolescence.
I blame the centerstand.