You are reading a single comment by @BrickMan and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
-
Tapered bearings would be a lot more susceptible to the wrong loading I guess, these are just run of the mill sealed ball 6203 series jobs, they won't take kindly to lateral loading so a bit odd that most modern motorbikes seem to use this style of bearing. Bicycles (which will experience less load) usually have loose ball which is going to be cup + cone, some sealed ball bearing, and fancier stuff like King and Royce use tapered bearings of some sort.
BrickMan
I can only speak for the R80 process as that's what I was doing but my ghetto method which sounds very similar to yours was not at all what the manual prescribed! The R80 front wheel bearings are a bit unusual though as they're tapered bearings, still never expected it to work the way it does. Basically guessing if you don't know how they're supposed to be set up.
I've found they tend to fail on the right side as the bike leans to the left on the side stand and that allows water to collect around the seal, but it all seems secondary to proper setup.