Ever had a wheel bearing failure? You get that metal on metal knocking from the back wheel, and it kinda ruins your day, right..
Seeing as I’ve had a number of ruined days, these days I consider wheel bearings as a consumable, a service item, and change them regularly. On my enduro bikes I generally change them every year, or 50hrs, whichever comes first.
This is what the KTM EXC500’s bearings looked like after only 2 years of neglect:
Here’s a short video run through of how I change the bearings on the TE300. It’s exactly the same process as on the EXC so whether you have an orange bike or a white bike it shouldn’t make much of a difference.