Is there a way to squeeze a little fresh grease into the bearings in the stem? Don't really want to take it apart, not having any problems, just learned over the years, fresh grease once in a while makes bearings continue to work well much much longer. would do it as general maintenance.
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Greasing Steering Bearings
- Thread starter film495
- Start date
Nope, taking them apart is the only way to effectively re-grease
As long as the bearing move smoothly without any flat spots that hinder proper steering, I never touched the neck bearings in any of my bikes back then but I also never owned any of them for 5 to 10 years either. Now, all these bikes are well beyond any normal service limit that Honda would have suggested for that maintenance procedure so they're all in need, regardless of how well the steering feels since by this point you would have no idea what has been done in the past. The best solution, of course, is to convert to roller bearings when you decide to do that maintenance since that would last virtually forever afterward (with the word "forever" meaning as long as you'd own it and well beyond). To me, it's pointless to go to the trouble to disassemble that area and not covert it. Yes, you could replace the individual balls and races with new parts and yes, it would steer just fine for a long time afterward, but the potential for the original parts to get flat spots in the races would still exist, particularly for those that were overtightened after replacement as it accelerates the process.
Nothing listed in the FSM's or the K0 owners manual about the head bearings maintenance. The later CM400 owners manual does call for Inspection every 7500 miles.