Steering intermittent resistance

Slipperyeel said:

Is there any chance some scroats tried to steal it at some point, damaging the steering lock? I'm guessing this will have been a 'recent' thing if you're just noticing the problem?

Glad you're arm it's ok

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There was actually a theft attempt on it 2 1/2 years back - on Christmas eve would you believe! I never leave it with the steering lock on though, so I don't think they did any damage to that at least.

firium said:

There was actually a theft attempt on it 2 1/2 years back - on Christmas eve would you believe! I never leave it with the steering lock on though, so I don't think they did any damage to that at least.

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Ah. Ok. Just thinking out aloud!

But peel back the rubber seal on the spherical bearings on the yoke tops - ideally underneath as that's where the water will collect. Busy saying this, I can't think of why you'd get resistance as you describe?!

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Lower ball joint? Pull the boot back and inject a good dose of gt85 or some such into the joint, work the steering around and see if any difference in feel.

OK, I have an update on this, having managed to get some time this evening for a spot of diagnosis. Yes, this is how I now spend my Friday nights

I'm now about 95% certain this is an issue with the steering lock. I have managed to reproduce semi-reliably with the following steps:

• Bike on centre stand
• Prop up so front wheel is in the air
• Turn handlebars so straight or to the left
• Turn key to engage steering lock until resistance met, then disengage
• Turn handlebars to the right

Sometimes, this will cause the steering to resist being turned when right of the straight-ahead. This feels identical to when this issue happens when riding.

On inspection, I can see the steering lock pin is not in its correct 'off' position and is dragging on the frame. When the pin reaches the steering lock hole it pings back to the correct position. This explains the 'click' feeling through the bars, and also why having done this the resistence disappears.

What I'm not yet clear on is why this is happening when riding? When stationary I need to provoke it by playing with the steering lock. I'm guessing that this happening at all would indicate that something is loose that shouldn't be, or that something has been bent out of shape and is interfering with the steering lock somehow.

Hopefully I have some time this weekend to look at this some more. I will continue to update this thread as I go!

clogged with road filth and or a spring broken....

if that was a common one, would have expected it to pop up before - age / condition ?

my brother used to dispatch ride round London he had a bike put the steering lock on whilst riding - oddly enough he fell off