The race didn't move, but the rollers moved during cleaning and regreasing. Think about it. These bearings don't even make a full rotation during operation. They move within an arc...back and forth, back and forth...and...they spend most of their life in one position...when the wheel/fork are centered as the bike goes straight. The rollers "and" race take a set over time with "dents" in the rollers and race. The limited movement and lack of real rotation...like in a wheel bearing...tend to keep those rollers in basically the same spot on the race. When you disassemble the bearings from the race, you have changed that "set". The new grease and readjustment definitely help, but the "dents" in the rollers are in a different orientation to the "dents" in the race.

 

not really, the roller themselves are all exactly the same size (diameter) so you can only move them 1 bearing either way and they are lined up again......

 

This is the way I look at it. When on the bike the races don't move, so the front is always the front. So where ever the race is loaded it will always be loaded, but the force is always (95% of the time) against the same area of the races, cause the wheel is straight.
So if we guesstimate that the wear is 1/2 bearing & 1/2 race, there is some race wear.
If you rotate the races 90 degrees, you are moving that wear 90 degrees from where the load is. It is like a new race in that area, cause the new load area has never previously been loaded.
Now the wear on the bearing is generally changing as the handlebars move, and over time they move very little. Pulling them out & repacking probably rotates them a lot. That and rotating the races, one essentially has a new bearing where the load is and you don't need a new bearing to get that new feel.
But for me, since I did all the work going in to fix it, I just put new bearings/races in as it is just as easy & $$ was not a real concern.

 

durielk, I understand what you're saying and it proves to be true as now the steering is so smooth it even feels light. I guess what you said about rotating the bearings, plus removing all the grime and repacking with new grease makes them feel smooth again.

I was also planning on just replacing them while I was in there but I wasn't able to get them here at a decent price. I'm gonna tighten it up just a bit to get a firmer feeling and leave it alone unless it starts having problems again.

cheers

 

Not exactly sure what you're stating there. In steering bearings where the race and rollers tend to remain in a predictable orientation to each other during normal operation, when you remove the bearing for cleaning and regreasing, those rollers are now randomly rotated during that process. Those almost microscopic "dents" are no longer lined up between the race and rollers. That notchy feel at the center steering point when the front wheel and frame are aligned is often alleviated from a servicing like this. Now, the inevitable "denting" of the rollers will occur more quickly since you still have those "dents" in the race at the center steering point. You could even knock the race out and reorient those "dents", but really, this kind of effort starts to verge on diminishing returns.

 

Thanks for sharing this detailed info. I am filing the link for use next winter.

Well, or maybe the winter after. But at some point I will need to do this maintenance.