I finally got rid of an annoying noise that was coming from somewhere undefined in my bicycle. I suspected it was something to do with the steering and its bearings… and I was lucky. I just unmounted the whole thing, cleaned it (there was some shit on the upper bearings that didn’t look good… somewhat rusty), and added huge amounts of grease. Mounted it back and voila, it works fine and the sound is gone (for the moment!).
As for the rust in the upper bearings… it’s something I saw before. We also cleaned and lubed it (in a shop), but I’m thinking that they didn’t put enough grease… especially considering the weather here in the north. Why wouldn’t the guy put more grease is something I don’t get. Maybe there’s some reason for not putting too much? No idea…
Anyway, now I’m thinking of replacing the upper bearings. There are some headset sets on internet, cheaper than the sets sold by Giant shops, but TBH I only want to change the bearings. The steering is the “old” Giant OverDrive (1), not the OD2. Different sources say that the headset is for tampered forks, 1 1/8" top 1 1/4" bottom. I wonder if I can fit any 1 1/8" bearings sold online or if there are some other dimensions to consider…