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    Play somewhere on the bike

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    10 Comments

    1. skyleth on

      Are you tightening the stack or just the cap? You need to loosen the stem bolts when tightening the cap so that the stack puts pressure onto the headset… otherwise you’re only compressing that spacer above the stem.

    2. Epiliptik on

      This steerer tube is super long. The tube needs to be shorter than the spacers + stem so that the top cap put pressure and hold everything tight

    3. Motor_Software2230 on

      Did you disassemble the headset pieces..(races, bearing balls..)? If so, you might have missed a part when assembling it back together. Otherwise what skyleth said applies.

    4. SspeshalK on

      The headset preload isn’t right – I would check a few things.

      Make sure that the top cap is pressing on the spacer and not the steerer tube. (If it is it either needs trimmed or a few mm more spacers)

      Make sure that the top cap isn’t pushing through a gap in the spacer (they look quite big?)

      Make sure you undo the stem bolts before trying to take up the slack.

    7. SoundEnvironmental57 on

      As others have said, make sure the preload is done properly first…loosen stem, tighten up top cap bolt, check for play again. If it all seems tight but still has play then you may need one more spacer, the headset may be assembled incorrectly or the cups in the frame are loose.

      There’s a wealth of videos online to help you out, Park Tools do some really good videos for the newer home mechanics to learn from.

      Failing that take it down the local and they’ll get you sorted. Biscuits (cookies if you’re that way inclined) or beers are great forms of bribery to bike mechanics. Or coffee.

    10. fireSciGuy on

      Always tighten the top cap and THEN the stem. Otherwise you can get gaps in the front fork assembly.

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