Need for head bearing clean and grease every 16k

[justlookin]

I am a new owner of a 2017 S10 ES. I have had the bike less than 2 months and have 10k miles on it. Looking at the owners manual there is a recommendation for greasing the head bearings every 16k miles. This looks like a lot of work to do every few months. I have never bothered about head bearings on previous bikes (my BMW r1150 has 100k miles on it - no problem). Is there some special reason why this needs doing on a S10. I am almost tempted to say screw it and keep on riding till they fail. Bearings are not expensive

Is there something that I am missing

John

 

[Checkswrecks]

You ride 16,000 miles in a few months? Wow.
::26::


Seriously, we've seen a number of owners who reported the steering loosened on newer bikes. Once disassembled, they also found that Yamaha uses absolutely as little grease as possible. So it's worth doing the check the first time and re-greasing the bearing set.


Once done though, you ought to be good for a really long time. The I simply have the front wheel elevated for tire changes or whatever, I'll a quick check for play in the steering head and never had any since the first go-around.

 

[greg the pole]

wow...i thought I rode my bikes lots.

If it makes you feel any better, I beat on my tenere, and at 85k km, the bearings are mint.
I would recommend greasing them, and torquing to the correct settings as per manual (don't forget the main top nut)

Once in a while check the front end for play

write up here
https://thetenerist.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/fork-rebuild-v2-0-steering-head-grease-up-and-front-rim-grease-spoke-tigtening/

 

[AdvToorer]

Has the interval change? Service manual for Gen1 says 30k miles. Recently did my '12 and they were fine and sufficiently lubed.

 

[EricV]

It's pretty common for the steering head bearings to need re-torquing early on and that's a good time to give them a proper greasing. After that initial grease and re-torque, I did it twice more in 100k miles and it was fine. YMMV. The '14/15 Factory Service Manual does spec "moderately repacking" the steering head bearings every 16,000 miles. Seems a bit excessive from what I've seen. I didn't use lithium soap grease though. I prefer a nice marine wheel bearing grease.

 

[Bryce]

I did mine at 16K. it wasn't too much work. get the tool off of ebay if you don't have one for the nut on top of the triple tree.
Take the calipers off, the wheel off and the fender off. Slide out the forks. I think there was the horn and some other brake parts to disconnect from the lower triple.
I left everything on the upper. The bars, the risers, all the stuff on the bars, the ignition. I just took the nut off the top and then used a bungee to attach this assembly to the accessory bar on my Gen 2. then you could just take the rest of the triple hardware off and get it all apart to clean up and repack.

I am almost tempted to say screw it and keep on riding till they fail

but then you have to replace the races and everything. if you keep them clean, packed and adjusted, they'll last a long time.

 

[justlookin]

Thanks to all for the advise. I will check them out when the time comes.

John