Steering head bearings
 

A couple weeks ago I installed a steering damper. When I pulled the top triple clamp off I greased the bearings and put everything back together, went on a couple good rides and everything seemed great. Than this past weekend went out for a ride with nambo-trev and ryangroch and when stopped and sitting on my bike, when I turned my bars back and forth there was a few spots that would drag and there would be a clicking or grinding sound and can feel it in the bars. Feels like it is the bearings.

I thought I may have tightened the top nut on the bearing too much so tonight I took the top clamp off and backed the nut off and still did it. I than pulled everything apart, wiped the two bearings clean and greased them up again put everything back together and it is still doing it...??? It doesn't do it when the bike is on the stand with no weight on the front end, only when there is some weight on the front wheel..?? Seems weird to me, anyone else ever experienced this? :confused:

Bikes a 2011 Nambo

Cberg, is there any chance that a brake line or throttle cable is rubbing when the fork is slightly compressed? Maybe in a different location when you put the front end back together?

How about the damper itstallation. You probably checked this already but I thought I would throw it out there.
Martin

It's not the damper, when I was putting it back together I checked it before I put the damper back on and it was happening. I will CSI it a little closer to check cables. Hopefully it is something simple.

The bearings seem to turn fine too, they have been greased several times now since new 30 hrs.

If it was the bearings you'd imagine you'd feel one of the rollers binding when greasing them or notice notching or wear in the races.

What about if you have the bike on the stand but apply some more pressure to the fork while turning the steering from the base of the forks? My initial thoughts were it may have been something with the damper but it appears you've taken that out of the equation already.

We're assuming you dropped the lower clamp and greased the lower bearing as well. Mine was dry from factory. The entire bike needs grease from factory.

I did grease the bottom bearing.

It seems I have fixed the issue. I just had my forks serviced, had one of the outer fork tubes that got banged up and put a flat spot in the tube and put a flat spot on the seal and wore the bushings a little bit. Fixed the tube and had new bushings and seals and now there is no more creaking sound in what I thought was in the head tube. Seems funny to me that this would have transferred into the head And handlebars but it did. Thought I'd pass this on just in case someone else ever experiences this. :cool:

Glad you fixed it. Bad timing that you started hearing it after the bearing re-grease.

At least I know my steering bearings haven't been neglected and are greased good. :D