I understand that school of thought, but, as Rob points out, the bearings are best evaluated by putting it back together and testing without the weight of the wheel. If they seem alright, now you disassemble again and grease.Ken in Oklahoma wrote:I'm in alignment (sorry) with ZM here. It is soooooo much easier to pull off the top plate, drop the fork assembly a bit, and clean up the bearings as best you can, re-grease, and put back together when compared to the effort and tooling (welder or special bearing puller) that it would be well worth the effort and the gamble that the bearings themselves are un-notched. If the bearings are, indeed, notched instead, then you haven't lost too much time. Then would be the time to take the forks off and replace the bearings.
Of course the lower bearing set would be hard to evaluate at best, cleaning the races and working with an inspection mirror to see what you can see. But I'm from the if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it school. If the old bearings feel right with the new lube then you've won big. If not, well you haven't lost too much.
Ken
Now we know (from his third post) that Irz is not just doing maintenance, but dealing with a problem. Others may have had different experiences, but I have NEVER found a used bike to have bearings old enough to have old dried up grease that didn't need new bearings. In addition, if this G/S has been off-road at all, then the front end has received a pounding far greater than pure street models get. That's why, even though I myself often belong to the "don't fix it if it ain't broken" school of thought, I err on the side of greater preventative maintenance on the steering head bearings on all my used bike purchases.
