Noise when turning the front wheel

[Eden]

Yeah sounds like when your stem was changed the headset may have been over tightened. It can be a tricky thing - it needs to be tight enough to not move back and forth(like I described when I thought the clicking might be looseness), but not so tight that it binds.

[equus123]

Yeah sounds like when your stem was changed the headset may have been over tightened. It can be a tricky thing - it needs to be tight enough to not move back and forth(like I described when I thought the clicking might be looseness), but not so tight that it binds.

that's a good way to put it.

[equus123]

i have an update.

i went to my LBS yesterday on my way home from work and the verdict is that we had to order new bearings. my buddy there who's the mechanic started general and got more specific. he wanted to take the fork off and clean everything down and while he was doing that we encountered our problem. i have an FSA headset and when he went to take the [forgive me, i don't know the lingo] bearings off of the top and bottom of the head tube, they came out in 2-3 pieces. there's the piece on top, the piece of rubber that the ball bearings sit in, and then the piece on the bottom. these were all coming out separately instead of one unit. my bike is ~3 yrs old so this also makes sense.

so he ended up cleaning everything off anyway, greased, and ordered new bearings. i have a stage race this weekend and because i only have one bike, this will be fine for the race. they will be replaced after that.

thank you for your suggestions guys, it helped!

[DebW]

I once took apart a headset on a fairly new bike I had because the headset kept jingling. This was before the days of sealed bearings. I should have found 25 individual 5/32" balls, but I found 24 balls and two halves. One bearing had split into two almost perfect halves.

[equus123]

oh geez. is that a manufacturing error or can somebody actually do that from riding?

[smilingcat]

Well atleast you found the problem with the clicking noise.

Funny many of us sort of forget about the headset. You really don't turn too much in either direction unlike BB where it goes round and round and round...

24 and 2 halves of bearing. That's pretty bad!!! Most likely a manufacturing defect in the split ball bearing. They shouldn't crack like that unless someone was riding in -40C weather or lower...

I guess headset don't get much attention unlike BB, hubs, rear derailure. Headsets do wear out. And wear out faster on a frames with shorter head tube.

smilingcat