Has anyone had a failure on a gs1300 cast wheel front wheel bearing? Mine collapsed at 12000 and bike currently with dealer. Dealer said it was a common fault. Very dangerous fault!
Views?
Views?
Front wheel bearing
- Thread starter aloudon
- Start date
Yes. At 10,700 miles.
Martin GSA UK
Registered user
Are they still offering the cast wheels. Thought I heard there's been problems and they're not currently available?
You may be thinking of the "forged" wheels. I think they are not currently available. As far as I understand it, the "cast" wheels are the standard wheels - the alternative to spokes.
My bike has cast wheels. No issues with the bearings so far, and it just had the 12k service last week. If it matters, my bike was built in June 2025.
Yes. Friends bike with around 2k miles. Bearing failed day 3 into a tour of Spain. No replacement bearing available so he was flown home courtesy of BMW warranty and bike arrived back at dealers some weeks later. Not a happy bunny.
Chinese bearings ?
if it was common , someone would have one .
an uncommon size , no one will have , it may even be specific to BMW. they may have an exclusive on it .
Most wheel bearings are not uncommon
Anyone know what is special about a 1300GS wheel bearing and what the numbers are
Take the bearing numbers off the side and google them
On my dirt bikes I buy them locally and get stainless steel food equipment grade ones, as they last longer
Last month I even got some supposedly ‘Honda only’ Koyo bearings
Had to buy one to get the size, at £26 and then got 4 SKF for £26 same size
Buying bearings from bike manufacturers is a rip off
Martin GSA UK
Registered user
The dealer could have raided one from the showroom floor. A Harley dealer did that for me with a reg/rec failure, so I could continue my holiday.
25x47x12 so a 6005 2RSH
Cheap as chips and available at any bearing stockist.
a common bearing ,
so why was it not available ?
BMW shop not got the balls to fit something that didn't come in a BMW box ?
so why was it not available ?
BMW shop not got the balls to fit something that didn't come in a BMW box ?
There you go, nothing too difficult
The Spanish BMW dealer should have been able to source it from a decent local bearing supplier, if BMW couldn't supply
A genuine Koyo/SKF or FAG bearing may well have surpassed the quality of the oem one, in fact
Instead BMW UK and BMW Europe, flew the man home and then shipped his bike, costing £000's
All for a set of bearings available locally for less than £50 and £50 worth of labour
The world has gone absoulutely fucking mad and nobody in a call centre/dealer can make/suggest a decision
No wonder BMW GS bikes are north of £25,000 if they have to cover recovery stunts like this
Recently I had a breakdown in France on a 21 year old BMW bike, for a fuel o ring leak
Recovery were brilliant, taking the bike to a car garage on a BH Monday and trying to assist a fix, which was to no avail and thus they put me up in a nice hotel for a night
Tuesday arrives, a normal working day and there was some consternation that the recovery company couldn't deliver the bike across town for 24-36 hours
We're only talking a city the size of York, so not massive, however the BMW Motorrad dealer couldn't even look at it for 10 days, FFS
So I decided to short circuit the whole she-bang and took a Uber to the BMW Motorrad dealer 1km from the hotel they had put me in and asked the driver to hang on 5 mins
I got the O ring for 3 Euro (and a few spares) and the fucking useless BMW dealer couldn't even give me a plastic bag to keep them together, shower of shite
Back to hotel and get my stuff and ask recovery company to send a taxi to take me to the car garage the other side of town, which they did
Back at my bike and the fix took 90 seconds (fecking BMW dealer knew it would be a car park fix and were full of gallic shrugs, about they didn't want to take it in though)
So, my advice is to short circuit the BMW network if you can and if it's easy, arrange the fix yourself and yer man in Spain could have got some bearings and had them fitted, in a morning and finished his holiday instead of being flown home
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My guess
Fecking numpties..............without any engineering integrity anymore
I bet they don't possess a welder either
BMW are no longer a quality bike .
i wanted to have some spare ft wheel bearings for my 1150 , Steptoe said he had never changed any , he didn't know the numbers !
i still have them in a box !
i wanted to have some spare ft wheel bearings for my 1150 , Steptoe said he had never changed any , he didn't know the numbers !
i still have them in a box !
It might not be the bearing itself that is causing the issue but the way they have been installed.
For instance if the wheel hub housing the bearings are pressed into has been machined a couple of thou` too small in diameter it`ll exert additional stress leading to quick failure, and it seems it`s only occurring on certain types of wheel design?
It`s likely that the same bearing would be used across multiple models but the problem is only happening (that we know of!) on GS alloy wheels?
Still tragic, though!
For instance if the wheel hub housing the bearings are pressed into has been machined a couple of thou` too small in diameter it`ll exert additional stress leading to quick failure, and it seems it`s only occurring on certain types of wheel design?
It`s likely that the same bearing would be used across multiple models but the problem is only happening (that we know of!) on GS alloy wheels?
Still tragic, though!
Likewise, approaching 4-500,000 miles on 1100/1150's in my lifetime and never changed front wheel bearings
Plus the WC driveshaft changing at 48k, WTF...............when I last looked at mine at 74k and 21 years old, it was like new and still had the original grease from the Spandau factory in 2004
Far East manufacturng tolerances, perhaps
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