Early wheel bearing failure? Yup. 23800 k's in our case. There is a post on a couple of others with early? failure. The bearings in ours had METAL SHIELDS not rubber seals. Replaced with 6203 bearings (Standard bearing number) with 2 rubber seals. The bearings are smaller than on a lot of other bikes. This is the first bike that Iv'e had that the wheel bearings went at this mileage. Mind you they only cost $12 the pair, fitting time only 15 min at the bike shop. I will keep an eye on the life of the current pair. To me , this is a MINOR problem, keep an eye on them, cheap to change, less than an oil filter. The scoot is still the best 2 wheeler that I have owned (35 years of riding). Cheers from Tassie. Geoff