About the only thing you could do to make steering bearings go bad is pressure wash the area too often.

Raise the front end off the ground and see if the forks turn left to righ smoothly - then do the same with the weight on forks.  If he forks turn smoothly the bearings are probably fine - if you feel them being jerky or rough then I suspect they may be bad or need grease.  

With weight off the front end, lift up and down on the wheel with one hand while holding the center of the handlebar steady with your other hand and if you get a clunk clunk up/down movement then the bearing may be bad or just loose.  If that is the case then I would remove the big nut and drop the front end, look at the condition of the bearings (any visible damage or bearings missing?) and if all looks good then clean with carb cleaner and apply new grease and assemble and torque it down.
Check again for the clunk clunk movement up and down.  If that is good and it also turns smoothly then you are good to go.

The shop mechanic said so but I don't believe um.Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 05/24/12 at 04:11:07:

I bought my savage as a work horse for commuting between Waikanae and Wellington (New Zealand) - that's about 60 km each way, year round. Which is a long way of saying it did lots of miles in the rain, at speed. Under those conditions the steering head bearings were completely snotted by 30,000 km (call it 18,000 miles) - the shield over the top bearing is pretty bad at keeping water out, but the seal under the bottom bearing is pretty good at keeping it in.

Replacing the steering head bearings was pretty average compared with other bikes I've done EXCEPT: there is no way you are getting the bottom race on or off the stem yourself wihout divine intervention. "Tight" does not begin to describe it. Mine had to be cut off at the shop and they had to wind the press up to a pretty fair tonnage to fit the new one.

And I forgot to take the bottom seal in, so now I'm running without it. But water that gets in now gets a chance to run out, and I'm using a top end marine grease, so it's probably a better situation than standard.

hi guys! still experience of driving on Ural worn bearings, steering column serves features when you turn. simply creates an impression that the balls in these bearings square and the steering wheel slightly binds. and already knocks and vacillation steering column-this is very bad. the last case.