Steering stiff

[grellboy]

Left my road bike for a week. When I next went to use, just very briefly the steering felt very stiff. It was ok straight after, although does sound a bit "gritty" at the top of the forks when handlebars turned. I am a bit mystified because I store it indoors and it was fine before. So what has caused it and how do I put it right?

 

[Slick]

Headset bearings?

 

[Tangoup51]

Sounds like water has gotten into your bearings and slowly washed away the grease and has been causing corrosion on the race. Which is what that 'gritty' feel probably is.


You'll need to disassemble your headset entirely, as far as to expose the bearings to clean them and apply fresh grease. Continued use while it's in this "gritty" phase will cause irreversible damage to the bearing race and you'll have to replace your whole bearing unit.

Depending on what type of headset you have will determine how you access the bearings. For any bearing type where the bearings are sealed in a cartridge, they will be accessible by removing a circlip, sometimes doubling as a washer on the unit itself. So take extra care.

Alternatively, you can buy new sealed bearings which correspond to the type your bike May have - but that's counter-productive if this is the first time your headset has shown signs of wear, as its usually easier to clean it up yourself.

Lastly, that grumble you hear and feel may well be coming from the bottom bearing or both top and bottom, so ensure you inspect and feel both bearings when you have taken them out of the frame. - It's far more typical the bottom bearing suffers from this issue more than the top, because of the added debris kicked up from the tire.

 

[raleighnut]

^^^^^^^^^+1

 

[screenman]

On one of my bikes it was the cables.

 

[Racing roadkill]

If you’re getting a graunch feeling for a couple of turns of the bars, after the bike has been stood upright, and not moving, the grease can sink to the bottom of the bearing cup a bit, and you can get some of the grease congeal a bit. If, when you turn the bars a couple of times, all is well, you have re distributed the grease / homologated the more congealed grease with the less congealed grease, more evenly over the bearings. If it’s still graunching after a few ‘wiggles’ of the bars, you might want to think about repacking the bearings in fresh grease, or replacing the bearings, and repacking them, or just getting new headset components.

 

[Levo-Lon]

I tend to drop the forks on a regular basis and apply waterproof white grease around the 2 bearings on all of my bikes, tho a thorough strip and clean is carried out yearly.
My latest brand new bike needed a new BB after 30 miles 3 weeks!! due to water getting in " MTB" so the replacement BB has been well greased. I did ride through a ford mind but modern bikes seem to need more tlc than they used to.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I tend to drop the forks on a regular basis and apply waterproof white grease around the 2 bearings on all of my bikes, tho a thorough strip and clean is carried out yearly.
My latest brand new bike needed a new BB after 30 miles 3 weeks!! due to water getting in " MTB" so the replacement BB has been well greased. I did ride through a ford mind but modern bikes seem to need more tlc than they used to.

Good advice there