Steering Head Bearings??

[JB]

Sometimes, on front-braking, it feels like there might be a little play in the forks of my Kona. The bike's less than six months old, so I wouldn't have expected the bearings to be noticeably wearing at this stage. I need to get the bike suspended and try to rock the forks back & forth, to check for play, really, which I was planning to do this weekend, but I thought I'd put something up here while it was in my head and get some of your thoughts. Do you guys think it's likely to be worn head bearings, or that it just needs tightening up a bit at the headstock?

Apologies if this is a bit elementary.

[martinw]

It one of them situations eh? When you can feel or hear a small knock and it suddenly seems like the whole worlds coming down around you, We've all had it ;D ;D

Could be down to a couple of possible things, in my experience. Forks will always have some play in them so you have to try and work out whats fork and whats headset. What i try and do is lock out the forks, if you have lock out, and then try gently rocking the bike back and forth. Put your fingers rount the bottom or top of the headset and see if you can feel some movement. It may well be that with your bike being only a few months old the headset and barings may have all settled and caused a little play.

On some occasions the brake pads will move slightly in the caliper when you have the brake on looking for headset play, you might be able to feel that.

Try undoing the stem bolts and nipping up the headset just a teeny fraction without tightening the steering too much and see if that sorts it.