I think what actually allowed me to see how much play there really was, is when the brake pad was out. My theory is that the rotor is sandwiched between the two pads fairly tight and can mask the amount of play that's really present.
In hindsight, there are two really glaring telltale signs that i should've picked up on and that is that I ate up the rear tire fairly quickly (5500) miles or so since the previous had put new front and rears. I put 4500 of them on there and when i bought it in February they looked brand new.
The other thing is the pads themselves. What i imagine is with as much slop that the wheel had, the rotor was constantly compressing the pads and pistons into the caliper and eating up the brake lining like candy. I looked at them when i first got the bike and gave it a thorough inspection. About an 1/8" of lining was on them. The new set only comes with about 1/4" of lining at the most so chewing them up that quick is another clue i missed along with the fairly long pedal travel after riding for extended periods on the freeway. Around town the pedal should've felt firmer from pumping them up more often due to frequent braking. You still with me.......? It is all starting to become clearer for me the chain of events that was taking place all along that easily went unnoticed. Brake pedal now feels nice and firm all the time.
So in short, excessive rear tire wear, coupled with brake wear and long pedal travel after extended rides = a real bad set of wheel bearings in my case, especially the rotor side.
Serious checks like these will become part of my now planned monthly THOROUGH inspection routine:s
