Steering Neck bearing failure.

[Ryderod]

My bike started making creaking noises whenever I either turned or slowly pushed it forwards or backwards. Fearing dry and rusted bearings I set about replacing them.
What I found is that the lower outer ring had formed deep lines from the rollers. Apart from some minor contamination of the grease there was no rust, pitting, or any other damage to the bearings, the top bearing was 100% and Still packed with clean grease, indicating possible fairly recent maintenance work, (I have not owned the bike for very long)
Any idea what can cause this type of problem? The bearings were not too tight, In fact if anything they were a bit on the loose side, so I am a bit stumped here?

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