Do ya just take the free play out, or take up the freeplay and then preload the bearings ?

Reason I ask, a (long dist) friend, an old guy like me, just bought a like new.....06 w/ 2800 mi yesterday, and he's complaining of fork flop one side to the other,.....not to the point of any freeplay, but there is no resistence. I'm not sure that there is anything out of normal, but he thinks there is.
I would hesitate to adjust any preload on those bearings if not normally done. My forks flop to the side too when ever they get torward one side or the other, and I see no problem.
So just wondering if he.......or the bike is out of line

That wasn't a Hon 250 scrambler was it ? I remember the hand adjuster on those. Anyway, I think same as you on this one. But I'm still wondering if bearing preload is normally ever used as a dampener.

If you tighten that bearing to the point where you can feel it, you just gonna wear it out. It is a ball bearing, and I have never come across a ball bearing as a machinist that was supposed to be running that tight. Every ball bearing has just a tad of play so the lube can cover the surfaces. Usually they run in grease, so no pressure lube system like on an engine. Every time metal runs on metal it needs a tad of play for the lube. Since it is a ball bearing on the steering it is gonna move pretty light. Bill67 is correct. You tighten it until you start feeling resistance in the movement, and then you back off a little. It is done best with the wheel off the ground, to avoid a false feeling in resistance. To be honest I have no clue how those bikes with the adjuster do it, but I don't even like that idea. This is probably just good for racing purposes, as nothing in racing lasts very long. If you think you need to tighten the steering, a dedicated steering dampener is the way to go. Every fast going bike that needs that has a steering dampener. I would even go that far to say, that IF a bike needs that, then the geometry of the steering related components isn't designed very well, or the bike can go so darn fast that it is not safe to go that fast without it no matter how good the design is. I bought my bike used and the forks are a tad bent backwards from whatever the previous owner did to it. I run it like that since 9,000 miles and never had an issue with flop or wobble. It runs even wobble free at over 90mph with only the right hand holding the throttle. Not that I do that all the time, just for testing if the bent forks was an issue when I bought it.

Have him check the tire pressure...

Thanks,
this has always been what I had been taught,.....not that some brand new bearings don't call for a preload.

ralfyguy wrote on 07/27/10 at 10:41:44:

Tapered rollers are a bit different, and I didn't know the steering head had those. Mostly those kind are used in a sealed oiled environment so they're lubed well. On the steering head on my bycicle it's ball bearings. I once tried that a little tighter and it was hard to ride like that. Tapered rollers can withstand a lot more force than balls due to the higher surface area. They still like to be lubed well. They are also used often on cars as wheel bearings.

Car wheel bearings are tapered rollers & they have preload.