blkraptor

Hey Guys

As the thread title suggests the steering on my bike becomes stiff after doing a relatively small drop off (1 metre). Loosen everything off and rest and steering is fine once again until I do a similar size drop off. Even took it to the local bike shop for them to rest in case I was doing something wrong but same problem. Waiting on a harder spring as there as two much of the travel is being used up given the size of the drop off despite using 10 out of 15 pre-load clicks. Any ideas?

Cheers
Steve

Homebrew01

It might help to give specific details of your bike.

JonathanGennick 

When you land, are you taking the impact with your legs and not with your arms? Do you even have the correct style of bike to be doing drops like that? (A cross-country mountain bike is the wrong device). I'd look for signs of damage inside the head tube and headset area. Take the bike apart while the steering is stiff, and try to determine what exactly has gone wrong, and then you have a starting point for finding a solution. (A good mechanic can help w/that). You might also look into a beefier headset. FSA makes one called "The Pig" that is aimed at downhill riding, that has larger than normal bearings and insertion cups that go deeper into you frame. If you are bottoming the fork, then that probably causes undue stress on your head tube and headset.

Slash5

Only thing that I can see that would tighten the headset without actual damage is that the stem is slipping. Assuming you don't have a carbon steerer I'd clean the steerer and stem where they contact with alcohol and torque the stem to the correct value - maybe on the high side of the torque. If it still happens, try some carbon paste.