Anybody had to face their fork crown? I think there is something fishy with mine as it takes a lot of effort to preload the headset enough but its fine with another fork.

maybe silly questions, but are you a) sure your SFN is staying where you've put it and b) you have enough clearance between the underside of the top cap and top of the steerer?

Not a silly question. Star nut is going nowhere and plenty of clearance for compression.

I had to have an old fork crown faced by a shop. The symptons were tightness in bearings as you rotated the fork.

I had not heard of fork facing until this!!

I cant see how a tube fresh off a lathe can be anything but bang on and beign mullered by a hand held ream or facing tool can only be a bad thing. Rekon your trouble may be elsewhere. (disclaimer, stragner things have happened I guess)

Its not the tube that's the issue though, its the fork crown. On most suspension forks these are cast not machined, (though yes my surly rigid fork is very crisp at the crown…) and in the case of all my other forks seem to be powder coated or painted. Add to this the methods most of us use to remove old crown races and you could have a recipe for a crown that is slightly off 'exactly perperendicular' to the steerer tube. When you're dealing with the tiny ball bearings in cartridge headset I think its conceivable that it could make a difference.

Mind you, I have had a steerer bind a little even though I thought the crown race was on properly, and after hefty re- malleting of the crown race (I use the inside tube of a car axle stand) it was gone.

Anyone know if a front end impact could bend the steerer/crown join and induce the same problem?

Ive had the tightness in the bearing thing but it turned out that I hadnt seated the race properly couple of smacks with a hammer and it was fine.

Park tools have a tool for it but its 'investment' prices. Race is fitted well and it looks good but these things can't really be viewed by eye unless it is way way out. The fork is second hand so maybe the crown has seen better times.

I very much hope a front impact has not bent the crown/steer!

Try giving the race a few hits just too see they make a different noise when they arnt seated.