Steering Head bearings

[Bixxer Bob]

Years back I followed the herd and fitted taper to my Blackbird. No matter what I did with the adjustment, it had a most disconcerting weave at around 30mph.  I swapped  back to standard and the problem went away.  As always, Mr Honda knows what he's doing, and why.

Going off topic slightly but another example of don't screw with Mr Honda. My friend had his VFR750 dyno'd and it had a low to midrange flat spot where it was rich. The Dyno man jetted it out. At this point alarm bells were ringing in my head because when Mark Brewin at BSD TUNING in Peterborough fitted my Blackbird Power Commander he said he had to be careful how much fuel he took out because they are deliberately programmed to run rich as it makes them smoother and easier to ride.  Anyway, back to the VFR. Next track day itwas unridable. There was no way to hold it steady on long fast corners, or feed in the power smoothly on exit.  Jetted back between sessions and problem solved. Like I said, Mr Honda knows....

[Sin_Tiger]

A lot has to do with the quality.

"Angular" contact are designed to allow a higher degree of misalignment, that generally is where I would expect to find them i.e. where there are changes as a structure flexes under load or due to differential thermal masses.

There are bikes that will have both fitted in the headstock.

[Lee337]

I learned from my 12 years a Blackbird owner that in most cases, the designer knew what he was doing with most things except fuelling, which is usually done to pass emissions tests. Except for the Blackbird fuelling - my Carb version disliked even a change of air filter away from standard.

With my Tiger, I tend to replace anything that needs it with either OE or like for like. I replaced the headstock bearings shortly after buying her & replaced with standard parts. The only thing I've really changed is the ECU map. it's got a TOR map even though there is a standard can fitted.

[blacktiger]

Going off topic slightly but another example of don't screw with Mr Honda. My friend had his VFR750 dyno'd and it had a low to midrange flat spot where it was rich. The Dyno man jetted it out. At this point alarm bells were ringing in my head because when Mark Brewin at BSD TUNING in Peterborough fitted my Blackbird Power Commander he said he had to be careful how much fuel he took out because they are deliberately programmed to run rich as it makes them smoother and easier to ride.  Anyway, back to the VFR. Next track day itwas unridable. There was no way to hold it steady on long fast corners, or feed in the power smoothly on exit.  Jetted back between sessions and problem solved. Like I said, Mr Honda knows....

Reminds me of when the Tiger800s came out and soon after, people were comparing the fuel economy with the GS800 which had gain a reputation for being economical but also being a bit jerky on the throttle. Triumph put out a press release or something saying that they wanted the Tiger to be smooth and rideable.

[CaptainScarlet]

Fitted taper rollers to my XC during the lockdown. Have adjusted it to have zero play with as close to zero drag as possible.
I haven't been out on it yet, but I would expect it to bed in a little and require adjustment again after a while. It goes from floppy to binding in a very small adjustment, unlike the ball roller original, but there was definite notches on the cups when the old ones were removed.

London_Phil
Yeah, adjustment as you described sounds right. I've ordered the couple of thin spanners recommended to make the job easier. They're due here, in the muddy backwaters of Northern Ireland, Friday. So I'll hopefully get it sorted then.

[Sin_Tiger]

You might find that the spanners you get need a little "polish" to make them fit. Every nut I've ever measured has been something like 38.25mm or a fraction more. I ended up making a pair of alloy OE spanners, they don't need a lot of torque to tighten or lock them.

[CaptainScarlet]

You might find that the spanners you get need a little "polish" to make them fit. Every nut I've ever measured has been something like 38.25mm or a fraction more. I ended up making a pair of alloy OE spanners, they don't need a lot of torque to tighten or lock them.

And lo...my spanners arrived and needed a 'polish' to fit!

Also, the pinch bolts holding the forks...Haynes says 20NM but it just didn't feel enough so I went to the interweb and found a tech sheet that suggested 20NM for the top clamp but 35 for the bottom clamp...

Thoughts?