loose rings under handlebar stem

[BullGod]

recently switched my handlebar stem for a longer one.

Put it on as normal, everything works fine, but i noticed the rings below the stem are a little loose and can be turned. everything is tightened, but these things still have enough freedom to be rotated by hand.

I don't remember if it did this before, with the old one.

Have I done something wrong? Is this safe?

 

[Peter@vecchios]

recently switched my handlebar stem for a longer one.

Put it on as normal, everything works fine, but i noticed the rings below the stem are a little loose and can be turned. everything is tightened, but these things still have enough freedom to be rotated by hand.

I don't remember if it did this before, with the old one.

Have I done something wrong? Is this safe?

The headset spacers? Means that perhaps, your headset bearings are loose and in need of adjustment. Grab the front brake and rock the fork back and forth. If you feel a little 'clunking', need to adjust. Loosen bolts that hold the stem onto the fork, tighten the bolt on the end cap a wee bit, check with brake again, center stem, tighten stem clamp bolts.

 

[dgregory57]

The headset spacers? Means that perhaps, your headset bearings are loose and in need of adjustment. Grab the front brake and rock the fork back and forth. If you feel a little 'clunking', need to adjust. Loosen bolts that hold the stem onto the fork, tighten the bolt on the end cap a wee bit, check with brake again, center stem, tighten stem clamp bolts.

+1

When things are set up right, you should have a little stem (or spacer) above the steering tube. This allows you to preload the bearing properly.

Two possible issues that are easy to fix... There may be others.

1) You didn't tighten the top cap enough before tightening the pinch bolts on the stem. I hope you knew enough to do this, but just throwing it out there in case you skipped a step on the installation.

2) The new stem has a narrower clamp than the old one. In this case doing everything "right" would still lead to a loose headset. Replace one of your spacers with a wider one, or add another narrow spacer.

Here is a page on adjusting the headset:

http://parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=65

It shows the gap you need in a picture about 3/4 of the way to the bottom.

You should also be able to find some useful info on Sheldon Brown's site.