Dodgy Handling Post-Crash - Any Ideas Why?

So... I had a pretty nasty crash a couple of weeks ago, surprisingly the bike seemed relatively unscathed compared to myself. However, it now handles a little oddly.

The problem is that every so often the front wheel seems to "wobble" and turn off a bit in one direction. It's not every revolution, it's normally to the left but not always. Nothing feels physically loose, it just feels wobbly in terms of handling.

At first I was convinced it was the front wheel being out of true, however I trued it today and the problem persists. I also found a small dent in the rim when I trued it, but the deflection is only one mm or so - I don't reckon it's that?

So after truing the wheel and eyeballing the frame a lot I'm running out of ideas. The frame seems OK, headset seems fine, front wheel is true now... Any suggestions on what I'm missing?

I know it didn't do this before I crashed it, equally I know it's not a consistent pull to one direction or anything, just an intermittent wobble. It's worse at slow speeds. Help?!

Forks? Post a pic if you can.

How closely have you looked at the frame? You sure it's all straight? No crinkles in the paint? Run a straight edge along the fork tips and stuff to check alignment. Also, properly pull down the headset and inspect. Could be crushed bearings or broken race or similar.

also you won't recognize a misallignment in the frame/forks by eye..unless you like sauron have an eye that sees......

Get hold of a park FFG-2 and check (and correct) the alignment of your forks. I'd offer you the use of mine but I'm off to Oz on Saturday evening.

the bike is fine, your handling was damaged in the fall

It's probably the earthquakes we've been having recently.

I would say your forks are probably very slightly bent

homophobe!

How closely have you looked at the frame? You sure it's all straight? No crinkles in the paint? Run a straight edge along the fork tips and stuff to check alignment. Also, properly pull down the headset and inspect. Could be crushed bearings or broken race or similar.

No crinkles, no earthquakes. I was under the impression that if it was the forks the bike would only pull to one side, now I reckon it's probably a slightly off dropout though. I don't "has" the tool but I did read a description somewhere of how to do a ghetto check using an old axle and a couple of locknuts... so I'm gonna try that first. I was really hoping it wasn't the forks too...meh. Thanks for all the replies!

if it was a bent fork it would be more of a consistent pull to one direction rather than a wobble every now and then imo.

maybe your getting old

I thought I had a broken axle lying around somewhere but I couldn't find it, so not checked fork drops (im)precisely at all. However (using eye of Sauron) I realised the outer part of the rim is about 3mm further from one fork blade than the other. Then I flipped the wheel, it was still off in the same direction... I also stuck a finger into the gap each side, tight one side, loose the other. So I'm thinking this could be it... although I had an old pug once where the front wheel was visibly not vertical and it just pulled a bit to one side... :S

Due to the intermittent nature of the problem is could be a bearing problem as Hippy suggested (either headset or axle) and only when the balls are in a certain place you get a problem, i.e if a ball had cracked in two.
If it was alignment of some sort wouldn't it do it 100% of the time?

if a ball had cracked in two.

is this a problem with the rider or bike?

is this a problem with the rider or bike?

Knew someone would say that. Almost put a comment in stating the balls on the bike not the person and looks like I should have :-)

I dismantled the headset completely as suggested, no balls broken but there was a lot of filth and crud. I cleaned it, degreased it, regreased it. I also checked the rear wheel for trueness for good measure and... the problem seems to have stopped! Which is nice. Although I'm still not sure exactly what the problem was... unless the crash angered the latent filth in the headset somehow?!