Bought a set of bearings ready to fit to the CB ..... and all was good.
Had been noticing a bit of deterioration on the Hornet's handling over the last few months, and had put it down to cold tyres, greasy roads, and general winteryness....but
it had started to get to the point where the thing was following every line in the road like a crazed coke-addict....and that wasn;t good. Now...London roads have some evil ripples in them, especially where buses have rolled over fresh tarmac and formed massive waves...but this was on little ripples.
Looking at shiny bearings made me wonder about the state of the head bearings in the Hornet.
So today, I decided I could put it off no longer. I had to have a look and see.
With a centre stand, it's not as bad a job as it could be. It was easy to pop the top yoke off and drop the steering stem out enough to inspect the bearings. The bottom ones were well greased, and when I wiped it back, the bearings were shiny and smooth and slick. No trouble there.
Gertting the top yoke right off to lift off the castle nuts took a bit more wiggling....but with a few brake pipes loosened and a bit of fiddling...that came off. There is an array of dust seals and bits, but they all lifted off too.
hmmnnn...
Well...I know why the handling was going odd now. No sign of grease. Absolutely bone dry. You can guess what the bearings looked like too. Rusty, gritty, and not at all happy. Replacements are on order, but this is my daily commuter ride and I need to get to work on Tuesday. So I have cleaned them up as best I can, packed them with grease, and popped them back in for now. Only got to last until next weekend.... but I hate doing things like that. Needs must and all....so gentle riding will be the order of the next few days.
But a new set of bearings are ordered and will get fitted next weekend. Will change over top and bottom bearings as a precaution, even though there is nothing wrong with the bottom ones. The bike passed it's MOT about 6 weeks back, and the steering was fine with no slop or play and moved as it should. I know...I checked it all over before the test... but it just goes to show.
Grease is the word......