Recently I noticed my scoot requiring a touch more effort in slow speed manuevers and then when applied it moved suddenly like the front end was hanging up a little. I put her on a lift and checked the forks for movement. I could feel a slight movement and the steering seemed to be pretty smooth, but as long as I was here I dropped the front end and proceeded to clean and repack the bearings. I was a bit dissappointed to find the upper bearing a little rusty and it was very difficult to turn by hand. The lower bearing cleanded up easily and moved freely and looked very good. I used some WD 40 and sprayed the upper bearing liberally and let it sit. Then I took compressed air and blew all the old grease and gunk out of the bearing and began to repack and work grease back into the bearing. It began moving more freely and after a couple of minutes more like 10 of packing clean grease in and working it until it came through fairly clean out of the bearing cleaning off the excess grease and gunk the bearing seemed to move freely. Some of the rollers show small pits, but otherwise all appears OK. I reassembled the front end and it torqued up well and seems to operate normally now. I still have an almost inperceptible movement in the front end when I do the push pull on the forks. My guess is the bearings should be replaced soon. Opinions please.
As such how do I get the lower bearing off the steering stem, and what is the best way to get the old races out of the steering head? Thanks for the help guys. Just a heads up, my scoot only has 26,500 miles on it and I serviced my steering head at 12,500 and yesterday and the upper was rusty. I do ride in the rain a bit, but was surprised to find rust on the bearings given my attention to this service.

Yes .... the R* neck is not the best of designs. Your problem is not that unusual.

I'd changed out the upper bearing if it showed signs of pitting. Don't go to the dealer; take the bearing to a bearing supply place and it will be much cheaper.

The lower bearing can be driven off using a cold chisel. I would inspect the race .... it's generally OK ... and only replace if it shows signs of wear ... usually a vertical groove just left or right off-center.

Doc

Thanks Doc, the upper race looked good, but I will give it a close inspection before going through the trials of replacement. What I really learned was to check and repack more often to avoid the issue.
When you say it can be driven off with a cold chisel do you mean driving it up off the neck shaft, or do you mean cutting through the bearing to essentially break it off the shaft? I would hate to mark up the shaft in the effort. Sorry to sound so dumb, but never dealt with this one and don't have the press to push a new bearing on if I have to get the old one off.

I will start with a new upper bearing and see how it feels. Maybe a great tech bulletin if I have to go all out on this one.

The cold chisel is used between bottom of the bearing and the tree ... you force it between so the bearing pops up.

If you need to get the race off the use a long rod place through the top of the neck and on the backside of the bearing .... use a hammer to knock it out.

It's usually the lower race that gets grooved, not the top.

Doc

Thanks Doc, that makes sense. If I have to do the whole replacement I will document it for a tech bulletin.

Hey Guys,

I just had my 2006 Roadie in the shop to get the carb jetted for some new pipes that I installed. I mentioned to the technician that my steering felt stiff at low speed especially when making a left turn. Since I only have 13k miles on my bike I was a little surprised to hear that I have "flat spots" on the head bearing and both the top and bottom need to be replaced at a cost of approximately $330. Is this a difficult repair? I am quite mechanically inclined and do most of the maintenance on my vehicles but never worked on anything like this.

You ever tear you bicycle apart when you were a kid? Same thing here but a larger scale. Do you have a service manual? It shows it real clear. OH and sorry for being rude