Wondering what the service life of steering head bearings might be?. Figure it would be less for fully laiden tourers than nippy little sporties, just curious to hear of any issues.

My bike is at 50 thousand ks and when the front wheel is off the ground there is no perceptable play in the forks when you hold em and try and move them back and forth.

In other words they have never been nipped up at all to deal with any slack.

I usually give the steering bearing grease nipple a few squirts of grease each oil change but am surprised that they have never needed any adjustment.

I have noticed, Dynas Do Not have a grease nipple at steering head, Only Softails do.

bought my fxdl 12months ago with 34000km on the clock.told the dealer i felt there was a stem bearing issue.picked it up and no clunks so away we go.at this stage hadnt ridden for 20 + years so i thought i was a bit rusty,bike handled ok in general but wouldnt "turn "at low speeds with roundabouts the worst,still put it down to me.now with 40000km i have bought a bike lift and jacked it up and the head stem bearings are tight and notchy like a detent,no wonder it wont turn. bearings are stuffed,reckon the dealer nipped the bearings to remove the clunk and didnt care about the bearing condition,just get it out the door and grab the money.should have picked this up earlier but didnt so i'll just move on and fix it.dont know wether this is normal for these km's or not ,or if they are the same set up or not minus the grease nipple. they also missed a stuffed front mount,but got a new one out of them the next day after getting it home.

when ya jack up da front you unload da bottom bearing & load da top instead so its harder to tell , but its da bottom bearing that wear notche's 1st , as most tourer's or straight liner riding type of bike's manly used on da Hwy's etc would wear more because da streering is in 1 spot most of da time ,  i noticed that da later dyna has no real top streering bearing seal & can let in water would be better using some sore of saltwater proof grease i think & do not wash hard in that area  , tapered roller bearing are designed too rotate like in wheels & crankshafts etc when used in swing-arms & steering da points of contact of da roller's  dig in too da inner & outer cup's & create notching esp on swing-arm's , cheers bob with da smelly knob

Use marine grease on ya bearings

Touring models also have the grease nipple in the steering head.

bob with da smelly knob's description of how most ascertain their bearings to be okay is accurate. The bottom brg takes most of the load and isn't under load when jacked up.

The service manual for most models goes into rigorous and laborious detail when detail when describing their adjustment and rightly so.
Softails are usually the best for longevity in my personal experience, Dynas the ones requiring replacement most often.

Service life is often dictated by the abuse and neglect they usually receive, unfortunately. An old mate (now passed away) believed that if you replaced the easiest bit, the upper cup, all would be good. Reckon the bearing shop had a go at him every time.

You can use the V-Rod seals which are very nearly cheaper than the tin hats for a better seal. They sit in the bearing. #48184-01
Why only the V-Rod is beyond me. Same bearing in all models of Sportster and Big Twin since '48. That's 1948, not the model 48 ;-)

springer models are very bad for wear , replace every 16,000 klm's, not a real good model anyway why would ya own 1