Originally Posted by
FBinNY
I'll bet a bottle of chain oil against a beer that you assembled the headset wrong. Most likely a bearing or bearing retainer is upside down. Pull it apart, and assemble in two steps, first the fork in lower bearing, then adding the upper bearing and top cap or race, checking each time to make the fork spins smoothly when you load with hand pressure and turn.
Thanks, where do I send the beer? ;-)
Seems like the bottom bearing was upside down. I didn't think that would matter because it looks the same on both sides, but apparently it matters