oh my oh my!!!!
if any of you have followed the three threads in advrider related to this subject you will find out :
1,,from day one i advocated the 'scientific method' to find the source of the bearing failures versus the endless speculation about brand of bearing ,,,country of origin,,,seal color ad nauseum
2,,i have immplored my fellow riders to bring it to their dealer ,,make sure it is written up so that they have recourse in case the bearings fail again aswell as giving BMW a heads up that there really is a problem,,,AND i too do not feel we the customer should be doing it.!!!
i have only offered my services in the past to those souls that got jacked around by their dealers and wanted PEACE OF MIND before going on looong jaunts.
3,,educating the inmates that popping in new bearings even if they are looser fitted C-5 versus the original speced C-3s does not constitute a repair or a fix to the problem,,,no different then swapping band aids constitutes a fix for a tumor...the problem is FIXED when they either give you another wheel with properly speced hub,,or rebuild your wheel with a properly speced hub ,,,or have a professional machine/hone the bore to spec..end of story
4,,all the banter about getting BMW to fix your bike is fine,,,BUT what do you do when they have no hubs in stock for over a year,,nada,,,squat nothing ,, no where in the system,,,i guess their answer was ''Swap bearings til the new hubs/wheels get in''....my answer is to FIX what ya have and be done with it!!,,no more worrying about my bearings failing.......i myself like the dear pilot had to fly in the airplanes i repaired when i was in USMC air wing...later i road-raced the machines i buildt,,,.i have never ever lost sight of building/designing/repairing any thing i touch that would leave me with a gnawing suspicion that something i did was not right...and folks smack me if i'm wrong but having bearing swapping cure mis-bored hubs is the last innovative solution i would expect from Bavaria...if i were in the outback,,sure i'd replace em to get to the nearest place i could repair the problem
OBTW,,,in the mean time i ended up designing tougher/beefier/lighter ones to satisfy the demand...
5,,and Mr.Pilot,,,i bet you wouldn't want that gnawing suspicion floating around your head that lockheed or boeing or,,,had a similar fix on your airplane if the scenario were similar,,,the sad part is most riders have implicit trust that their problem was solved when they brought their crunchy bearings in for repair
6,,what i offer my customers is the latest in innovation,,,practices learned from the school of hard knocks and racing,,,,so one more BWOE for those souls that do round the world jaunts,,the water crossers and their ilk,,,i learned that cleaning and re-packing the bearings with boat-trailer waterproof grease does the job mo better and much longer then the skimpy pig -fat installed in most of the chinese bearings,,,it's just an option ,,,i have no manuals from the factory authorizing it,,,and OBTW no bearing failures from any of my customers/racers in 37 years,,
7,, ''there are many roads that lead to Rome'' i'm told ,,,sometimes i'v e found there are better ways that are not even on the map...and sometimes i had to hack my own way there,,,
8,,Rumi says:
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
9,,Pax vobiscum!!
woody