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[NervEasy]

Hi,

My steering head bearing is indexing (dragging in the middle when moving steering side to side) . My bike is a 2019 S 14kwh and I have ridden it almost daily since i bought it in januari of this year.

To me this seems very early for a headbearing to go bad? Is this normal??

[DonTom]

Hi,

My steering head bearing is indexing (dragging in the middle when moving steering side to side) . My bike is a 2019 S 14kwh and I have ridden it almost daily since i bought it in januari of this year.

To me this seems very early for a headbearing to go bad? Is this normal??

Sounds like it could be adjusted a bit on the tight side. Have you tried to adjust it to whatever the spec is?

It is not uncommon for steering bearings to go out of adjustment on new bikes.  However, I think they go lose more often.

Now, I am going to check mine ASAP.

-Don-  Cold Springs Valley, NV

[Richard230]

Hi,

My steering head bearing is indexing (dragging in the middle when moving steering side to side) . My bike is a 2019 S 14kwh and I have ridden it almost daily since i bought it in januari of this year.

To me this seems very early for a headbearing to go bad? Is this normal??

Not in my motorcycle ownership experience. I would expect a motorcycle to go at least 50K miles before the steering bearing starts to index. But this assumes that the bearing was properly installed and greased at the factory. I have had two BMW's, a 1997 Funduro and a 2009 F650Gs, that had their bearings index after only 10K miles. Both were replaced by my BMW dealer for free under BMW's 3-year warranty. Neither bearings were properly greased at the factory.

I also has a similar problem with a 1993 Honda CB750 after 50K miles. It turned out that the grease had hardened and that was what was causing the indexing. Removing the bearings, cleaning them and re-greasing, solved that problem.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Well, you're within the warranty period, and if you haven't bashed the frontend somehow, you're probably likely to get coverage if they decide it's a defect or assembly issue.

[NervEasy]

No warranty...

Didn't bash my front in any way. They just told the dealer to re-lube and re-tighten (I need to pay for that). 

[Crissa]

Lube doesn't last forever, alas.

-Crissa

[Fran K]

What kind of bearing is it?  I have had the loose balls and races, the plain ball bearing, and the taper roller bearing.  The ball type was problematic in it's era, kind of doubt it is that one.  Really would not expect that (indexing or bearing going bad) on a street bike, dirt bike on the other hand top riders take the things apart when virtually new and go through all that stuff, varies by make how much grease is in chassis components and my hear say is pretty old by now.  How about the seal on the bottom or is it just a sealed bearing?  Lastly, how can one add grease without taking the stem out?  Inspect?

Fran

[Fran K]

Lube doesn't last forever, alas.

-Crissa

I am pretty sure some salt water proof grease would last way beyond the time interval discussed here.  Not sure where Zero sources their parts and if the bearings and grease packing are kind of for 10,000 rpm instead of steering neck.

[Crissa]

I am pretty sure...

Yes, but there's always that one that fails early.  You hope to have a good spread far in time... But there's alot of random chance and humans involved between here and there.

-Crissa

[Demoni]

If you feel a notch it's going to be time to replace the bearings. Adjusting and lubing them might help mask the issue but not fix it.

Bikes run angular contact bearings in the steering stem to better manage vertical loads.
The normal procedure for installing these bearings is to tighten them to a higher torque (to seat the bearings), loosen then and then tighten to a much lower torque value (8-10Nm).

Checking the torque on the bearings after a break in period is important as they will wear in a little bit. Due to the low torque value of the nut even a small change will cause them to become loose.
Every time you hit the brakes that small play in the bearing will cause it to wear the bearing race. Over time this will create a small dent in the raceway, that's the notch you feel.

If you are already paying your dealer to disassemble the front end of your bike just have them replace the bearings.

Make sure you have them rechecked after 1-2k.

[Richard230]

As a comment: I found that the steering bearings of my 2018 Zero were over-tightened at the factory and after arriving home I had to loosen the adjusting ring just a bit to get the forks to swing from side to side smoothly and without binding.