Are my wheel bearings bad?

[petrock]

Hey,
I pulled my wheels off for the first time today (getting new tires put on tomorrow, 11k miles). The services manual states to check the wheel bearings to make sure that they rotate (via my finger) smoothly and without any noise while I have the wheels off... Well they do rotate smoothly (not choppy or sticking at all) and there doesn't seem to be any noise... but they are a biz-nitch to turn with my fingers. I have to apply a decent amount of presure with my finger to get the things to spin (all of them, front and rear). Is that normal or do I need to get my wheel bearings replaced? I've never dealt with Harley wheel bearings before. I would have thought they would have rotated pretty easily, with minimal force.

If I do have to get them replaced, would they be covered under warranty?

One thing I did notice was that who ever put my bike together only put greese on the nut side (left side of the bike) of each axle. The rest of the axle is almost bone dry. Somebody was being lazy. When I put it all back together, I'll make sure to put a good coating of greece on them.

Thanks for any info...

[LittleBear]

Sounds like they are Okay to me. Biggest failure of the new sealed wheel bearing is they start leaking grease. If they are sitll sealed, you are fine.

[RG50]

The bearings dont sound bad.I would use antiseize on the axle instead of grease.

[machinist]

I second the anti seize. You may note that using it is mentioned in the manual yet not heeded by the factory.