Notch in Steering Head

Hello All

My Y2K has almost 32K miles on it and I had my local Honda shop go through it and do the full vlave adjustment and 16K service. All was good. They did however report that there is a slight notch or flat spot in the steering at the dead center point. They said it was due to normal wear in the steering head/bearings and was not a safety concern, but just to keep an eye on it.

I can only detect this slight notch if I have the bike on the center stand with the front wheel off the ground. I do not feel this notch when actually ridng, nor do I get any sort vibration or anything else while riding.

Has anyone else noticed this in your bikes?
What sort of life expectancy should the steering head/bearings have?

 

If this is bad enough, then the symptom you would feel while riding, is that the bike will weave. With a notch in there you can't make the smooth corrections you need, instead you're either in the notch or out of it.

This symptom comes on so gradually that you may not even notice it yourself; you adjust to it without even realizing it. It's more noticeable when someone else rides your bike.

 

Running the bearings loose will accelerate the notch formation. My 4th gen had this when I bought it (used) and the click and rattle that went away when I actually tightened the lock nut on the stem. (After adjusting the bearings.) My old single cammer 750 had such bad notches you could feel it at low speeds. I replaced the balls with needle bearings and it has been wonderfull ever since.

 

Thanks for the detailed feedback Elizilla;

I don't beleive there is any weaving in the steering yet. The notch is so slight that it can not be detected when the front wheel is on the ground.

What is the fix? New steering head bearings?

 

The fix is new steering head bearings - the damage has already been done.

Then tighten the steering nut until the front end doesn't flop to either side when off the ground. It should take a "slight" pull to get the front to move. Ride it about 200 miles, and then readjust if necessary.

- You can get by with tightening the steering nut until new bearings can be installed.

 

The other symptom will be that it won't want to make small steering changes and will take a lot more effort to change direction. At this point it'll only get worse. New bearings and races are pretty cheap and not too hard to change out.

 

My Gen 5 showed slight notchiness on centre stand as pointed out by the tyre place then my mechanic during the last service, he recommended and I watched him change it to tapered bearing's and re-pack with quality marine grease.

Must admit didn't really notice the notchiness while riding when replaced with the tapered bearings a large improvment in smoothness and steering feel was immediately apparent.

 

Thanks for the Help John451,

You bring up an interesting point... I was not aware that the 5th Gen did not come with a tapered bearing, Is this true? I figured the only bikes that used ball bearings would be the GL-1800 or maybe a cruiser?

Do you have a manuf part # for the tapered version

 

They may be cheap, but they are NOT EASY to change out. I had to replace the races on my Hawk GT. Biggest pain in the ass, ever. The clearance is litterally zero. I had to put the steering head in the freezer, and a torch to the race. Even then I had to have a friend hold the steering head while I wailed on the race with a mallet and a 5' length of pipe. Maybe it's different on the VFR, but it was outragously frustrating on my Hawk.

 

With the PROPER tools, it is a piece of pastry. When you are improvising, it gets proportionally tougher. All Balls sells the set. MAC sells the tools. (Or make your own.)

 

Most bikes come stock with ball bearings. The tapered bearings are more durable, but harder to adjust. When you know you'll likely have less-than-perfect setup from the dealers, and you also know that most riders won't put on a lot of miles, then choosing ball bearings over tapered is a no-brainer.

 

That explains why the mechanic guy even though he has replaced 100's took some 10 minutes of just adjusting and re-torquing down before he was 100% happy with them, but the result though was worth it. :smile:

 

That's because you did it backwards. The race needs to be cooled to shrink it and then maybe heat the steering head (front of FRAME) to expand it (generally not needed). Now, if you meant the triple tree in the freezer, then OK, heat the BEARING (tapered or race for balls) and cool the stem, but if you did it the way you've described, it's a wonder they went in at all and that they were any good. I've done lots of them and, for me, it's slightly harder than changing brake pads, just more parts to remove and more tools.