I'm sure most of you with older vtx's have read of the flange bearing going bad prematurely, Tapper did an excellent piece on it himself. Well, I am happy to report that after 60 K miles, mine finally felt like gravel was in it when I went to replace my rear tire yesterday. The last tire I put on 11K ago, the bearing felt fine like it always has when I checked it. When I spun it yesterday, it had a gravelly feeling, although it still "seemed " tight. The honda manual only shows the whole assembly being replaced at once on 2002 models, no seperate bearing listed. The whole assembly is like 200. plus. Get the bearings seperate: 20. X2= 40. that are listed for the 2003 and up bikes. There are two seperate bearings (ball) that have a seal on one side and are open on the other. These are mounted in the flange side by side as if they were one bearing. The new bearings did have a TOUCH of grease in them, not near enough to last long though. I packed the open side of the bearings with grease, and drove them in with the open sides facing each other, thus keeping the "sealed" sides to the outside. Then put the center collar that unites them back in and Wallah, ready to put back on. Just be sure to drive both bearings in straight and snug. The old bearings flew apart as I was driving them out, and the "balls" were shaped more like my own than a sphere, lol. My new venom R, new brakes and flange bearings took about a hour and a half. Sure is nice to know the rear bearings are new again. I replaced the front bearings just for GP about 30 K ago. My venom R's are getting 10-11K on my rear tires and 20 K on the front tires, and I am just about as hard on a tire (and bike) as anyone you know. The thing I wanted to emphasize here is that if you or your stealer looks it up on the 2002 fiche, it will show the whole assembly needs replacement, at great cost... just look up the individual bearings on a 2004 or so and get those for about 40 bucks total. Save a couple hundred......buy BLING!
