so i was applying my rim stripes and i noticed my front wheel has some up and down/forward backward movement in it, not much, maybe 2-3mm. i took off the front wheel and i can barely spin one of the bearings, and the other moved freely, too freely, but had a kind of jerky action and made a weird noise when i spun it, like it was worn badly.

anyways, i ordered an AllBalls kit, and its on it way. but is it safe to drive on for the next couple days?

thanks

 

no.

The bearing may overheat and seize stopping the wheel at speed.
The bearing may be damaging the axle shaft or wheel.
The wobble may put unbalanced stresses on the brakes and may cause a malfunction, again at speed would be the worst case scenario.

 

Better safe than sorry. Another consideration is, if you keep riding and the outer ring separates from the inner ring, as happened to me, it can be a royal pain in the **** to get the old bearings out. Let her sit. From my recollection, AllBallz is quick to ship their stuff.

 

+1, would not ride with as bad as u say, better safe than sorry.

 

Ganzy,
Given that bearings are built to tollerances of +/- 0.0001 mm I think the answer is pretty obvious. If you got 2-3 mm movement then your bearings are probably not really best described as bearings now mate.
There's no way I'd even contemplate riding on front wheel bearings that are that ****ed. You're asking for trouble. BIG trouble if you do.
Not sure where you are in the world but if you had to do a UK MOT test every year your bike would have failed a long time ago. You don't get that much wear over night.
Jesus....... 2-3 mm.......:icon _no:

 

+ 10000

My front wheel bearings where o.k. & tight as but it didn't stop one of them collapsing on me a couple of weeks ago. No warning just an ear splitting squeel then thump, thump, thump.... front end wobbly as hell.

Not something you would like to happen at 100 km/hr, Plse do not ride !

 

ok thanks guys. and we dont have inspections here

 

where is that exactly?

 

The entire weight of the bike is on the bearings. You need good ones.

My daughter's car had a rear bearing go last week. It froze up and welded the race to the spindle and all the ***** fell out when the wheel was removed. Very dangerous on a bike.

 

northern illinois