Tiger 800 Headstock Bearings

Head bearings at that mileage seems extravagant, unless he wheelied the shit out of it or did some hardcore offroading. Or the dealer hoodwinked him for a needless repair
Tiger good for touring France? Isn't that its raison d'être? Comfort, good tank range, powerful alternator to drive your toys....

 

There's a chap on Youtube currently touring Spain as part of a five week retirement tour. He's on a 2003 T100. Sleep easy, and enjoy

 

You can't go wrong with touring on a tiger.
Head bearings they can be over tightened, I had mine re greased during a service with a mechanic I know and trust he tightened everything up to the right spec but the steering was really tight so I took it back he re checked the torques and said they were ok but the steering was still too tight so we loosened the lock nut gradually until it was smooth and left it there.
This could have happened to yours but wasn't rectified soon enough hence the change

 

Saw a Tiger in Jordans (Leeds) workshop last week that looked to be having new head bearings fitted; I don't know any specific details i.e. mileage, but the bike looked reasonably newish condition wise.

Has there been a faulty batch of bearings? won't be the first manufacturer for such an issue.

Is there a fitting process error with too much preload applied?

 

I had a brand new tiger 660 which needed its head bearing changed with in the first 3 weeks......go figure

 

@Malcolm Woods
Just for info; when I fit head bearings I always tighten too tight to snug everything down and then feel the resistance to steering. With a sharpie I reference mark the relevant bits and this becomes my "excessive preload" mark. I then back the nut off half a turn and hand tighten it back up. Usually this results in around a 30° to 60° shortfall ( remember an easy guide is 60° is one corner to the next corner of an hexagonal nut).
I then check for freeplay and excessive preload (this is best with the handlebars off, cable drag etc) and fine tune accordingly.

I've done the above for years and it has always worked for me.