Bike sat 6 mo, now very difficult to turn bars/forks....???

before you do anything else
put air in your tires

Heh, thanks, but they are much harder to turn than flat tires would cause. Did check that but they have air.

Thanks,
Jim

Do you have a damper?

Is there any way water could have gotten into the triple tree stuff? Like stored outside or power washing or water crossings or ridden in rain before being put away?

Is it making any noise when you turn it?

All else checked it appears you have a bearing or race problem. I think you need a special took to press them in if I remember correctly.

Bump wrote:Do you have a damper?

Is there any way water could have gotten into the triple tree stuff? Like stored outside or power washing or water crossings or ridden in rain before being put away?

Is it making any noise when you turn it?

All else checked it appears you have a bearing or race problem. I think you need a special took to press them in if I remember correctly.

Thanks Bump. No to all of those questions. When I went down it twisted the forks, not much. It rode fine back to the truck, and I have pushed it around before, no problem. Then this time, this hard to turn problem. Guess I won't know til I tear it apart. I hope I'm not hurting it turning the forks as I move it around.

Jim

start with simple stuff

untwist your forks

then
get the bike on a stand and check your steering head bearings

no idea about the 650R
but on each of my XR600s they were toast after a season
in two cases the cages broke and one by one the bridges got squshed between the cones
every time this happened the bike was absolutely unsteerable
the crash impact forced the bridge thru between the cones and flattened it to metal foil
then everything worked until the next piece broke loose and got stuck

fiep wrote:start with simple stuff

untwist your forks

then
get the bike on a stand and check your steering head bearings

no idea about the 650R
but on each of my XR600s they were toast after a season
in two cases the cages broke and one by one the bridges got squshed between the cones
every time this happened the bike was absolutely unsteerable
the crash impact forced the bridge thru between the cones and flattened it to metal foil
then everything worked until the next piece broke loose and got stuck

Thanks. That might be what's going on. Will post when I get it apart......when my to do list gets down about 50 slots.

Thanks much.
Jim

Honda skimps on grease for the steering head bearing on all their bikes. The bearings might be toast from the fall( I doubt it). Either way it is a good idea to pull the steering head apart and grease the bearings. Then you can also inspect them for damage, align parts and torques them to proper specification. It sounds like it is a bigger job than when you actually complete the previously mention tasks.

Power washing is not a good idea. It forces water into bearing. A garden hose level of water pressure is better.