Yamaha grease- more expensive than gold!
 

Am I right in saying that the rear suspension also suffers from a lack of grease?
Is it worthwhile stripping it down now?

Yes it is!
 

I stripped the rear linkage down today and found as expected.
There definitely isn't enough grease in there to properly lubricate the bearings and there isn't enough grease to prevent serious corrosion if the lip seals fail.
Disappointed in the poor way this bike is screwed together.
Tomorrow I will repack the knackered Cush drive and see what else I can find that's corroded, loose, squashed, dry, worn etc etc.

Ive just been onto TK Cope who sold me the bike and its look like Yamaha are sending me new cush drive rubbers and new head bearing under warranty.

I regreased my head bearings today. Ive felt something was not right for the last two weeks, but I thought it was the tires, as they were worn out. But after putting on new TKC yesterday, it still wasnt 100% .
Did it easy, on the centrestand, just dropping the forks a bit.
Upper bearing was ok, just not very greasy..
Bottom one was black and full of water!!! No sign of grease.
And this is a 2012, 11500 km on it
Dont apper to be damaged, so I used paper and air to dry it, and it seemed to never fill up with grease.. I worked in a big lump of it, and what a difference... Its a new bike! :thumbsup:

But I think its sad that Yamaha doesnt have decent quality control...
So check your bikes if you havent already done it.

Osmund

Wondering if mines is in the same boat, 2011 bike, steering fine at speed, and very slow, but anything where you're not counter steering to turn and its meandering allover the show, dropping into corners and generally an unnerving filtering experience.

Have ordered a new front tyre, so will see if thats contributory, but need to act promptly as I want to get it scrubbed in before the winter sets in.

Took off front end, removed top bearing and no Grease, burnt looking marks on the bearings.
Bottom bearing seized and water inside, dribbling out upon dropping the forks. - Great!

Any ideas on what the Correct bearings are? Rather than going through dealer, I will go direct to the bearings company. I have the top bearing but not the bottom bearing which is quite tightly fitted.

greased it up, and took it for quick spin - problem solved.

My advice, anyone buying a new bike grease the steering bearings immediately.

G

Upper: I/D 25mm x O/D 47mm x W 15mm (SKF 32005XQ)

Lower: I/D 30mm x O/D 55mm x W 17mm (SKF 32006XQ)

I just bought a 2011. Was handling terribly and the lower bearing was recompile telly rusted. All replaced now and rides lovely.

These are the steering head bearings on a three year old Yamaha Tenere with 15K on it (September 2011 registration, I got it in November last year with 5K miles on it) - the bottom one was full of water as well..

I've not wiped them, that's it, no grease to speak of.

http://www.sweller.dynalias.org/imag...adbearings.jpg

I wiped the bearings and the races, they were clean and shiny, and greased with standard general purpose grease.

To adjust them I used two C spanners (one was an old MZ exhaust spanner, the other my Hagon adjuster).

I loaded the bearings up by tightening the lower notched nut fairly hard, slackened it off, then tightened it until the play was gone, slackened it until play reappeared, tightened it a touch and checked for no play. Holding the lower nut with one C spanner I locked it down with the upper nut.

The bike now handles a lot better!