Steering stiff when cold on motobecane mirage sport
 

I have a 82 motobecane mirage sport and when riding in the cold (under 30) the steering gets real stiff. In normal temps it feels almost a little loose, though the headset is seemingly properly tightened. Any ideas of what I should check for? It is a pretty drastic change. It was 15 degrees on my way in to work and it got hard to turn.

I will probably do a repack and regrease on the headset bearings anyways.

thanks

What kind of grease are you using?

I have no idea. I bought the bike about 6 months ago and haven't touched the headset. Probably due for a refresher. It ran smooth throughout the summer and fall. Does that sound like the best place to start?

Yeppers

Strange that it would go from too loose all the way to too tight.

Cleaning and repacking is not hard, and might turn up that it is full of crud. Hopefully that will solve it. If not, then headsets can be reasonably priced.

jim

I actually had the same problem with my Bridgestone CB-1. It normally lives under a tarp in the backyard, so I figured some water must have worked its way into the headset when it was too loose and then froze come winter. At any rate, I overhauled the headset, and now it lives on the front enclosed porch (for the winter, anyway). Problem solved.

Neal

Well I managed to take it apart, clean all the dirt, grime and filth and relube. I did notice however that the part of the headset that sits into the top of the headtube of the frame was loose. Could this be the problem? Shouldn't that be really snug in the frame? I guess I will see if it stiffens up again in the cold.

Thanks for your help. I really like this bike and it has been fun learning how to repair & maintain, but the constant quirks makes me want to buy a brand new bike.

It should be very tight. No movement whatsoever. Nothing really to be done about it, except replacement