I have a 2003 Fuji Team with approximately 3,000 miles. I've recently discovered that my fork has a little bit of "wiggle" on it. I can repro this by clamping the front brake tight, and pushing the frame forward and backwards slightly. It is not severe, however it is enough that it makes me think about it whenever I do hit the brakes, and isn't exactly confidence-instilling.
I've also noticed that there is a rubber spacer/gasket just below the headset that is full of cracks. I'm not sure how critical this is, but it's something that makes me think. [IMG]howheels.orgheadset 1.jpgOpen ↗[/IMG] I can also see daylight just above and below this rubber between the headset and the frame.
Are there any easy adjustments I can make to tighten this up? I've tried taking the cap off the headset and tightening headset itself a little, but it did not make any difference.
Are there any easy adjustments I can make to tighten this up? I've tried taking the cap off the headset and tightening headset itself a little, but it did not make any difference. -Matt
Looks like an integrated headset. The rubber cap is just to keep water and dust out of the bearings, it's non structural.
Anyway the issue is you need to loosen the stem before you tighten the headset bolt. So loosen stem, tighten headset (don't over tighten), then re tighten the stem.
If that doesn't work, you might not have enough of a gap between the top of the steerer and the top of the stem (or spacer). This means the headset will bottom out before theres enough load on the bearings.
Looks like an integrated headset. The rubber cap is just to keep water and dust out of the bearings, it's non structural.
Anyway the issue is you need to loosen the stem before you tighten the headset bolt. So loosen stem, tighten headset (don't over tighten), then re tighten the stem.
Thanks for the reply. Per your advice, I loosened the stem, and tightened the headset (and re-tightened the stem), however it did not make any noticeble difference in the wiggle in the fork.
Quoted post said:
If that doesn't work, you might not have enough of a gap between the top of the steerer and the top of the stem (or spacer). This means the headset will bottom out before theres enough load on the bearings.
It sounds like this may be the case. Is there anything that can be done about this?
It sounds like this may be the case. Is there anything that can be done about this?
Take the top cap off and loosen the stem. I'm going to assume you have the top cap sitting directly on the stem (ie no spacer between top of stem and stem cap). If you look down in the inside of the hole in the the stem, you'll see the top of the fork steerer tube. The gap between the top of the stem and the top of the steerer tube should be around 5mm. Less than this and you might have an issue.
Given I'd assume you've been riding the bike trouble free for 3 years, either the above is the issue or the bearings have crapped out.
Can it be easily fixed. Depends. If the gap is less than 5mm your options are:
a) Put a small spacer on top of the stem or below it (easy) b) Pull the whole assembly out and cut the steerer by a few mm (not recommended)
You're best bet if you're not sure is to take it into a LBS for a 30 second checkup. The issue should be pretty obvious to them on inspection.
Well I ended up taking it to the LBS, and as it turns out, I am totally incompetent. They did exactly the same steps I did (loosen the stem, tighten the headset). However, when they did it, it actually worked. I must have just not tightened it enough.
