FE/FC FE Air Filter- Am I being dumb with the grease?

New huskies and ktm coming from factory are sparce with grease

I don't grease my funnelweb air filters, It just doesn't seem necessary and makes a mess. The plastic cage compresses the foam filter base against the metal mating surface. I could see how the screen may cause sealing issues on the TE's, I binned that thing.

In regards to greasing new bikes; steering head, linkage and swingarm bearings get repacked. I give the axles a healthy coating of waterproof grease and also pack between the wheel bearings and dust seal, but never, pick the seal off a new SEALED bearing to pack more grease in there. In my humble opinion, there is more chance of reducing the life of a sealing bearing by potentially damaging the seal when removing/replacing and mainly because there is a good chance of adding small contaminates when applying the grease.

As they should be. Very little is needed. Also, kept in mind that most greases will not be compatible, so unless you clean out the original grease, you'll likely be doing more harm than good

Its 25.00 gentleman, its not a helocopter main rotter bearing. Haha

Rotor

Usually the first thing I do when I get a bike is take apart the stuff that needs grease and at least check.... most times the new bike new more grease.... I wouldn't pick the seal off a bearing but I will use my bearing packer and pack them correctly....and a bearing needs grease....

I see what you're saying, over lubrication certainly has its issues. However, from my experience on DIRT BIKES I have never experienced a problem with something being over lubed except for drive chains accumulating that dirt/oil crap that eventually becomes valve grinding paste. I have seen numerous stearing head, linkage, swing arm bearings fail after low hours due to undergreasing by the factory whereby the grease washes out and causes premature failure. From a non-technical perspective there seems to be an anecdotal link between components I've seen fail with poor amounts of grease vs cpmparitive failures when over greased.

I know things like high speed bearings don't like overlubing/greasing as the grease need to be allowed to be displaced as the rollers spin round and round etc.

I agree, swingarm, linkage, steering stem and shock bearings never make a full revolution so the "it will overheat the bearing" does not apply.

I am running a k&n in my Fe 501s. I am much happier with its seal to the air box than any foam filter I have run. I follow K&Ns instructions and use the supplied grease that comes with the filter. I also use a K&N prefilter. This set up is so much better than the stock foam unit I threw the stocker away! Perfect seal every time with no more dust passing the seal!