Road bike Fork

Srig007 said:

Hi all,

I just bought a Panasonic Sport 1000 road bike from an old friend, and I love riding it. I used to own a Trek 6000 mountain bike, but unfortunately it got stolen from a train station, but no hard feelings. I love my road bike and i ride it everyday. One thing that I notice is that the fork is a bit too loose. With the Trek I was able to ride straight without holding on to the handle bars, but with the panasonic I have to hold the handle at all times or else it will side track very easily. Can anyone help me fix this problem. Is there a way I can fix this problem by tightening some bolts or something. Any suggestions would be appreciated. thanks

Srig

The problem is either that the headset simply needs to be adjusted OR the front fork was involved in a crash (simply running into a curb could probably do it!) which has thrown it out of alignment ...

Lock the front brake on the front wheel and rock the bike forward ... if the headset is loose, you will probably be able to notice it when you let the back of the bike back down to the ground.

While a fork can be realigned (if only slightly "damaged"😉, it is easier & probably cheaper (not to mention safer) to replace it if adjusting the headset doesn't resolve the problem.

The alignment seems to be perfect. I dont think that this could be the problem. Is there anyway I can tighten the the handle bars so that it does not turn easily?

Srig

Srig007 said:

The alignment seems to be perfect. I dont think that this could be the problem. Is there anyway I can tighten the the handle bars so that it does not turn easily?

A fork can LOOK fine, but be mis-aligned ... I don't think a person can really tell just by looking.

The easiest (?) way for regular folk like you & me to determine if a fork IS aligned is if you can walk your bike down a slight incline while holding the bike by its saddle ... if it tracks true (allowing for the fact that YOU have to hold the bike vertical -- you may have to practice walking your bike this way) then the fork is "okay" ... but, if the bike consistently wants to wander to one side, then the fork probably needs to be realigned (realigning a fork is NOT a practical DIY-home "project"😉.

As far as tightening the handlebars, etc ...

If you look at the the top of the stem, you will PROBABLY see a hexagonal hole ... it is more than likely a 6mm HEX bolt which uses a 6mm Allen wrench to tighten & loosen.

To adjust a threaded headset, you need two "over-sized" wrenches (these are NOT household tools) ... ONE will probably do in-an-emergency.

If you look the portion of the headset that is on the upper portion of the head tube, you will see TWO large nuts. You can loosen the upper one with a LARGE adjustable wrench while holding the fork legs.

There is (should be) a washer and then the "second" nut which is attached to the upper cup -- hand tighten this until it is snug, but not so snug that you can't turn the fork (if you have either SOME automtive grease OR even some vaseline-type petroleum jelly, you may want to loosen the assembly just-a-little (actually, this is best done with the bike upside down!), back nut off by about an 1/8th of a turn, put the washer back in place, tighten the upper nut. EVERYTHING will tighten, but hopefully, having backed the "lower" nut off by 1/8th turn will now leave it properly adjusted. That's really NOT the best way to make the adjustment, but if you don't have two headset wrenches, you have to make do.

Now, in reality, it is better to disassemble the headset and inspect the bearings ... replace the old grease with new grease, etc.

Of course, the headset bearings can be replaced (should be less than a dollar for the INDIVIDUAL bearings from a bike shop) ...

You do NOT want to over-tighten the headset to the point where it feels as though the bearings feel as though they are rolling in a wave-like trough ...

AND, you do not want the headset to be loose enough that you can perceive the bike rocking on the fork when the brake is applied to the front wheel.

alfeng said:

A fork can LOOK fine, but be mis-aligned ... I don't think a person can really tell just by looking.

The easiest (?) way for regular folk like you & me to determine if a fork IS aligned is if you can walk your bike down a slight incline while holding the bike by its saddle ... if it tracks true (allowing for the fact that YOU have to hold the bike vertical -- you may have to practice walking your bike this way) then the fork is "okay" ... but, if the bike consistently wants to wander to one side, then the fork probably needs to be realigned (realigning a fork is NOT a practical DIY-home "project"😉.

As far as tightening the handlebars, etc ...

If you look at the the top of the stem, you will PROBABLY see a hexagonal hole ... it is more than likely a 6mm HEX bolt which uses a 6mm Allen wrench to tighten & loosen.

To adjust a threaded headset, you need two "over-sized" wrenches (these are NOT household tools) ... ONE will probably do in-an-emergency.

If you look the portion of the headset that is on the upper portion of the head tube, you will see TWO large nuts. You can loosen the upper one with a LARGE adjustable wrench while holding the fork legs.

There is (should be) a washer and then the "second" nut which is attached to the upper cup -- hand tighten this until it is snug, but not so snug that you can't turn the fork (if you have either SOME automtive grease OR even some vaseline-type petroleum jelly, you may want to loosen the assembly just-a-little (actually, this is best done with the bike upside down!), back nut off by about an 1/8th of a turn, put the washer back in place, tighten the upper nut. EVERYTHING will tighten, but hopefully, having backed the "lower" nut off by 1/8th turn will now leave it properly adjusted. That's really NOT the best way to make the adjustment, but if you don't have two headset wrenches, you have to make do.

Now, in reality, it is better to disassemble the headset and inspect the bearings ... replace the old grease with new grease, etc.

Of course, the headset bearings can be replaced (should be less than a dollar for the INDIVIDUAL bearings from a bike shop) ...

You do NOT want to over-tighten the headset to the point where it feels as though the bearings feel as though they are rolling in a wave-like trough ...

AND, you do not want the headset to be loose enough that you can perceive the bike rocking on the fork when the brake is applied to the front wheel.

Thanks for the suggestion. I think it's time for this bike to be tuned at a bike shop. But I will try your advise on the hexagonal bolt tightening to see if this fixes the easy movement of the handle bar. I dont know, I sometime predict that the reason for the easy movement of the handle bars is due to too much grease. But I could be wrong. Shows how much I know about fixing bikes. But anyway thanks for your advise Alfeng