The bike passed an. MOT 3 days ago with no advisories? Would they not have checked the steering head bearings for any play?

Mine didn't have any radial play at all and felt good when swinging the steering from lock to lock, not notchy at all and the drag felt normal....

It wasn't!!

Same here. And not just on the Tenere. I have that "falling over" with new tires on every motorbike I rode.

Same.

Sludge
 

It may not be the head bearing but the tiny amount of grease that is on them.
My bike felt like it was a barge turning round a corner and you had to apply loads of counter steer to keep it turning.
On investigation the small amount of grease on the bearings has simply turned to a sticky sludgy mess. The bearings werent notchy the were just moving through treacle.
Remove , clean and regrease and it will feel like a new bike.

Thanks for the help guys. I rode 100 miles to Peterborough and it felt pretty bad so I popped into webbs. After lots of persuading the service manager allowed someone to have a quick look. The technician instantly said that there was a notch in the turn and the steering head was extremely tight. It wouldn't even turn under it's own weight. He said it needed loosening off and he would replace the bearings also. To cut a long story short, I'm in north Lincolnshire now for 5 days and a dealer here is going to do it. I havent got the tools here and it feels pretty bad so just going to get it done. The guys at webbs and up here said they don't know how it passed an MOT

Awesome, glad it's getting sorted, mine gave me a few close calls on wet roads before I found the bearings like that!

Matt

This happened to me a few hundred miles after my 12K service. Once they start to go, it happens real fast.

My head bearings have been re-greased once and changed once in 25,000 miles.