rear wheel bearing completely shot
 

Went from work to my home and suddenly the rear felt very unstable :mad:, luckely i was 0,5 km from home. Then home i noticed my rear fender was scrubbing my rear tire, so removed that. Then went for a test, no improvement. I then checked my rear wheel and noticed the wheel bearing on the left side was gone with a thin iron ring still hanging on it, the rear axle loose in the wheel and the chain very loose. This is the second time a rear wheel bearing breaks down, but the first time it breaks down comletely. It's a weak point of the bike because the bearing is unprotected on the outside of the rear wheel,

Does anyone have a suggestion how to protect that bearing from impact?

I know that this will keep on happening once in a while and i don't want to risk being stranded or worse.

my rear wheel bearings get destroyed fast. i replace them 3-4 times a year. i only buy quality bearings.... i have ordered checkpoint machine's hard coated wheel spacers, to see if this fixes the problem.

What am I missing? Is there not a seal there?

seals are there - but i think the soft spacers let the wheel move side to side and destroy the bearings? all i know is the bearings wear out extremely fast on my rear wheel. i put a set in earlier this year, have run 6 or 7 2 hour races, and they are shot already. back wheel wiggles...before i put more bearings in, i'd love to solve the cause.

I was a bit confused by this statement: "bearing is unprotected on the outside of the rear wheel"

Mine's new and I haven't had a wheel off yet, but that's seems way premature to wear one out.

What I mean is that the bearing lies on the outside of the wheel and there's space between wheel and frame so dirt can get in the seals and after a while the bearing will get shot. I would recommend changing the bearings every 10-15 hours if you only ride offroad or every 50 hrs if you ride it dual sport like me . Will now change the bearings every time i fit a new rear tire. My bike eats rear tires so that's not a bad idea i think.

I always pop the seals of new bearings before mounting them, and pack them up with a good water resistant bearing grease. Remount the seals, and then they last for at least a full season in the worst of conditions. I know there are mixed opinions of this operation, but it works for me.

i do the same, and bearings still don't last for me. my spacers are shot. i switched rear out yesterday - one cage was completely destroyed. hopefully new spacers will fix it.

1-i always pop the plastic seals off a new bearing and pack it with some hi quality bearing grease.....the factory doesnt grease them enough
2-on my old honda cr500, there were two bearings stacked on top of each other on the chain/drive side. i think this is a great idea but i dont how feasible it would be to make this work on a gasgas.

Um, my 07 has this - 2 bearings. Inexplicably they are different sizes, which is why the aluminum spacer washer is in there. I got 180 hrs out my last rear bearings and even then only one had crapped out due to water ingress. I have replaced all and packed with marine waterproof grease between them and the seals.