Steering Head Bearing Torque

[Peteg]

3 years ago when I first got my bike I seemed to remember some people saying you need to check your steering head bearing torque regularly. I think I may have been delusional. Now I think I'm reading once the steering head bearings are right they might go 100,000 or more miles without being touched. My bike's got 57,000 on it now and had 36,000 when I got it. As far as I can tell the steerig head is perfect.

So I guess my question is how long do you guys go without torquing the steering bearings?

I've got the tank off the bike and the front end apart changing the air filter, servicing the forks, changing the dot 4 on the front brakes and cleaning the calipers. I planned to torque the steering bearings while I had everything apart, but based on the way the biked ran on the road and how good the unloaded front end feels I think I'd be wasting my time. Also it would probably be hard for me to get an accurate 10 ft lbs with my tools. Maybe I'd do something stupid like over torque them??? 

[98valk]

service manual states inspect them every 8k miles and most important to inspect at 600 miles.

inspect means check the tightness. lots of work and special scale is needed. 

somebody yrs ago posted a tightening procedure to use which made tightening them one and done, I didn't save it at the time.

suggest right now u check if there are any knotches by rotating the steering while the wheel in up in the air.

I'm sure others will post info.

[Chrisj CMA]

The easy way:

Jack up the front of the bike. With the wheel off the ground

Center the bars and give them a little push. Should glide to and bounce off one stop and glide to the other stop and that’s it. If it keeps going much farther than that it’s too loose. If it barely makes it to the first stop it’s too tight.

If it needs to be tightened or loosened you have to remove top triple tree plate. Make the adjustment and redo the test.

I did this years ago. It needed a tiny tighten. No torque wrench needed and no special tools. It’s been fine ever since

[Peteg]

Thanks guys. Nearly certain I'm good. I'll do Chris' test when I get the wheel back on and keep a copy in the suspension section of my manual.

I had an issue with front end alignment the last time I put a new front tire on it, so I wanted to go through the front end when I had more time. Valk 98 made a good suggestion then pointing to the front fender likely holding it out I'll make sure it's loose this time. Taking things apart I think I just didn't get the left fork and axle shoulder clean enough so the axle didn't want to slide like it should. I've got a really short inseam so I invented an alignment assist system for the vertically challenged. I lay a piece of 2x4 on each side of the bike where my feet go - increasing my inseam by 1 1/2".