[Ride_Moore]

Hey so on a ride my rear wheel bearing went out in my 07 gsxr 750 got all the parts ordered and went out to look over everything before all the parts came in and noticed a hole in my wheel and was wondering if there is anything I can do or if I need to buy a new wheel

 

[Doc_Rot]

New wheel time. ive never actually seen that happen before. did you remove the internal bearing spacer?

 

[Ride_Moore]

No my rotor side rear wheel bearing went out on the interstate but it was to dark for us to see what it was so we rode in the shoulder about 20 mins back home and when we got home I saw the wheel bearing was shredded and it looked like the spacer was shredded in half inside the wheel I wasn’t to worried I ordered some allballs bearings and was going to swap out my extended swingarm for my stock one and had a spare axle so wasn’t to worried about anything being damaged until I saw that hole

 

[BillV]

The wheel is toast and belongs in the scrap heap. It's somewhat hard to tell from the pic but it looks like a bearing failed/seized, forcing its outer race to rotate in the wheel. That could be a result of the bearing not being properly installed in the first place. Installing the bearings is trickier than many people realize. Many people don't have the correct tool or don't use it properly. Your mention of an extended swingarm makes me wonder if installing it had something to do with this.

 

[Ride_Moore]

The bearing definitely failed lol and I’m going to remove the extended swingarm once I can find a wheel I bought it this way and he said he had the bearings replaced but not sure by who or when I ordered bearings to replace these when it failed and just so happened to notice the hole before I replaced them

 

[Doc_Rot]

Check that the wheel has the internal spacer. People leave these out all the time when they change bearings for some insane reason and the wheel assembly will not work correctly without it. If you torque the axle without the internal sleeve you will destroy the bearings. I have seen bearings seize and destroy axles but never a wheel like that.

 

[Ride_Moore]

Alright I’ll check when I take off the wheel I don’t have a good place to store my bike without having another wheel to put on but I got a decent picture to show the shape of what I believe is the spacer but it looks like it has been sheared apart but it could be the bearing itself I can’t really tell it definitely did a lot of damage even spun my brake caliper around when it finally gave out on our ride and it was a sudden failure I didn’t hear or feel anything until the whole back end started sliding it felt like a flat tire or caliper seizure until I got home and saw the damage

 

[Bat-1]

Be glad you got away unhurt with this failure. Used rear rims are easy to find and cheaper than front.

 

[Doc_Rot]

the internal bearing spacer I'm referring to is located between the wheel bearings, you will not be able to see it unless the axle is removed. that loose part in your photo is the outer bearing race. Frequently when people replace wheel bearings they forget to put this internal spacer back in. The wheel assembly cannot function properly without it and if you torque the axle the bearings will shred very quickly.

As Bat-1 said you are lucky you didn't get hurt. While this stuff is relativity simple mechanically the consequences for screwing it up are large. Take care when repairing this.

 

[Ride_Moore]

yeah I’m definitely lucky, I’ll have to check and see if he put that spacer back in when I tear down the rear end im waiting to order a wheel then I’ll be riding again soon hopefully

 

[TwistedMister]

its a place for large brown recluses to live..