Originally Posted by
Greenfieldja
Did you clean and inspect everything after taking it apart?
Putting fresh grease in a headset contaminated with dirt or metal particulate from badly worn parts will cause your problem.
If the headset was not adjust properly in the past it is possible the bearing race surfaces are pitted and/or the balls are excessively worn. If no pitting is found on inspection and the parts were cleaned prior to regreasing/reassembly then one should expect any of the following:
1. the balls are excessively worn and need to be replaced.
2. the initial install of the headset was not done correctly and the cups might not be aligned properly causing binding.
3. everything else being checked/done correctly then perhaps you have your bearing pre-load set to tight.
-j
This is a secondhand bike, but I know the previous owner personally and he's never touched the headset since when he bought it (the bike) new.
The only cleaning I did before regreasing the bearings (they are caged) was wiping them and the cups with a rag.
The headset has never been taken apart until today and it has less than 500 miles on it so I'm guessing excessively worn cups/bearings is a slim possibility?