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^^I had thought of doing the exact same thing, but hadn't worked out the screw mechanism to force the ends apart.

FWIW to anyone who stumbles across this post while researching how to replacing steering head bearings, installing the new races in the head is much, much easier than removing the old ones! The top race is easily driven into place by tapping with a hammer. The lower, outer race is slightly more difficult, as it is inset inside the head, but you can use the old race to drive it home -- just slit the old race with an abrasive wheel first so you can easily remove it afterwards. The lower, inner race was the hardest to install, but I used another section of the same pipe I used for the drift to remove the upper race -- just be careful to keep the pipe centered on the race itself, and not the bearings! Easy, peasy! Took me two weeks of on-again, off-again work to disassemble the steering head, and two and a half hours to put it all back together again.

Just a little bit of finishing work, and I'll be back on the road again, woohoo! (Well, technically, I've been riding this whole time, but on my Speed Triple, not my GoldWing, lol)

Much easier to install the races if you put them in the freezer and warm up the frame. Same for the bearing on the stem. Put the lower triple tree in the freezer and warm the bearing up.

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