Yes; if testing the headset as one would with a "normal" bike you have to be mindful of the noise and movement from the back end; which is irrelevant if perhaps un-nerving! This can be avoided by lifting the back slightly while you do the test.
Good work with the hinge; tbh this sort of stuff worries me as I don't trust anyone to work on my gear and tend to just buy the tools to do the job myself... however, this and the hinge pins might be a bridge too far and I'm dreading the day they need attention..
Indeed; it's just slop in the latch assy. You could tighten it up, but eventually you'd get to the point where it made the latch operation unreliable.. while perhaps a bit irritating it's not indicitive of a problem and is probably best viewed as the application of Kalashnikov's attitude to tolerancing - i.e. if it's not important, make it huge
Today's little impulsive distraction was the stem. Having applied wax to various potentially creaky areas recently with apparant success, life has once more been blighted by noise from the front end under power. Aware that the bike's seen nearly a year's worth of service in all weathers with zero inspection in this area, I pulled the stem using the usual approach applied to the B's unusual format.
Bike folded, stem bolt slackened a turn, twatted with a hammer via a brass punch inserted into the bolt's hex to free off the wedge, then the whole assy withdrawn from the fork.
Thankfully nowt to see here; the whole assy being free from obvious wear, corrosion and contamination (largely, some grit on the lower face nothwithstanding) and covered in a decent coating of fairly sticky yellow grease.
View attachment 725922
After a bit of research I learned that this setup is the current stem format, changing from the earlier "expander cone" arrangement to this wedge-based ensemble in 2019.
View attachment 725923
As such the stem itself appears different; so complete assys are probably interchangeable but individual parts are not (for the record that's wax not damage on the clamp
)..
View attachment 725924
The grease and grit on the stem were gently cleaned off and the bore of the fork probed with a finger to remove any grit without fully removing the corrosion-resisting grease present. Copper grease was applied to the wedge assy and it stuffed back down the fork; the bolt tightened to 80% of the 30Nm value found on the net once the previously-applied pencil marks on the stem and headset bearing locking nut had been aligned.
A quick test ride confirmed it doesn't squeak, however that was the case last time..
In other news the bike's now passed the 2000 mile mark with no additional drama; saving me about £350 in fuel / 2.5k car-miles so far. Now the seasons are becoming more accommodating it's once-more starting to feel like a privilege to be out on the little bleeder rather than a necessary chore.
On top of that it's facilitated by far the most winter miles I've ever done; so has no doubt helped to maintain what little fitness I have during the colder months and offset to a degree the repercussions of my many and growing number of unhealthy habits