Ball bearing original races will always get lumpy easier than taper rollers. I remember one year on scooters we were selling, the factory must've upgraded their compressor & whoever fitted the races & steering preloaded the adjustment way to much & they had Big Lumps from new. Just loosened them a bit & carried on but sure wasn't ideal.

Just order a steering stem kit from Yambits. It's dirt cheap and the bike will handle like new.

Did you order the original or the taper type. I see both listed. Gotta be careful driving the lower cup right home as its quite a long way up in there compared to the top cup & can go crooked & pick up metal. Ask me how i know haha. Hope your lower seal is good for a turn to keep dust & dirt out.

"Gotta be careful driving the lower cup right home as its quite a long way up in there compared to the top cup & can go crooked & pick up metal. Ask me how i know haha."

+1

Also, beware of any powder coating residue interfering with the dimensions and subsequent fitment.

kind of forgot I started this thread, winter gets cold up here so the garage is tough to get out to. anyway.. I never ordered any bearings as I am just starting to put the bike back together. Dumb me forgot to remove the upper bearing race and it got powder coat on it... so now I need to order new races. To answer RD325 I think I am going to go with the original as tapered sounds like they won't work correctly. Thanks for the tip on the lower cup I'll be careful with that! Looks like I can still get all the parts from Yamaha too so it won't cost an arm and a leg.

"Dumb me forgot to remove the upper bearing race and it got powder coat on it... so now I need to order new races." 

That's probably better than removing the race, forgetting to mask off where it sits and then spend hours removing unwanted powder coating! 

Good point, very thankful I don’t have to do that!