Adjusting Steering head bearings : How?

Afew ways possible , but I lift the whole front up with a stand that goes through the Ally nose cone frame hole then loosen the top steering stem nut off & remove then undo the top tripletree clamps bolts & pull that off . Then grab the bottom of the front forks & slowly pull them towards myself & rock them back as well to feel any free play if there is then I bend the tabs on the castellated nuts up so you can undo the top nut enough to lightly tap the bottom adjuster nut clockwise till the forks no longer have any free play in them & still drop from side to side easly with out to much effort , you can take the steering damper off if you want to have a more accurate feeling of this but I have done it a few time now & know what to look for . There is torque setting for the steering head bearing nuts you can use if you have the correct castellated sockets for the nuts but if not I tighten the top nut back down onto the bottom nut while making sure not to move the lower one any more then nip it up just under 1/4 of a turn more to make sure it doesn't back of , then bend tabs of the lock ring back into place then replace the triple tree again & torque the steering stem nut to spec required
98-2000 = 80Nm
2001-2003 = 100Nm thats about it really :thumbup

Hi Gaz. If you had new bearings last year but havnt ridden much since then its possible that the bearings hafe forced excess grease out and become a little loose. You just need to nip them up a little as described above.