Ive tightened the compression/star nut, tightened the headset bolt but it doesn't seem to go further. I've looked at the same bike online and it seems their gap is somewhat smaller.
Doesn't look normal to me, what do you think?
by External_Security_72
14 Comments
Is the bearing in the right way around
Hold down the front brake and rock the bike back and forth. Does it have any play?
Could be just normal tolerance, there can be a gap, but there must never be contact. Your bike probably didn’t come out of the exact same mold as the one in the promo pictures.
If you have no play when you rock the bike back and forth and side to side, no headset noise when you pick up the front end and drop it, and the gap is even all the way around the headset. Then it’s probably normal. You can compare it to pictures of headsets on the same model bike
thought you meant the enormous gap between the wheel and fork! there is no real performance benefit to running 22s 😉
A gap per se doesn’t have to be a problem, provided that the headset is correctly installed. Assuming install is correct, chucking a generous coating of grease in the right place will keep any water from making its way to your bearings (if that’s your concern.)
Sometimes, they’re just like that.
But, you can hold the brakes and rock the bike back and forth to see if there’s any play.
If yes, then loosen the stem bolts before trying to tighten the top cap bolt until there’s no play when you rock the bike back and forth. When the amount of play is gone, tighten the stem bolts.
To be honest, it doesn’t look too bad to me, integrated headset carbon road bikes tend to have pretty big gaps above and below the headtube, and if everything is assembled correctly the gap doesn’t matter apart from the aesthetics (they will never be close enough to protect the bearings from water ingress for example, so a larger gap doesn’t make the bearings more susceptible to wear).
May as well ask Ribble and see what their maximum acceptable gap is, and if the bike you’ve got is within that tolerance, but you feel that the bike doesn’t match what was advertised then you could press for a partial refund (couple of hundred pounds type range), and potentially ring round bike shops near you to see if they have the tools to machine integrated headset bearing seats on carbon frames, so that the bearings sit fractionally further into the frame.
That’s normal for that Ribble. If you’re in doubt though and want more confirmation, email their support team with the photo (label it a bit better with an annotation).
I had the same concern on a different brand when it was new. I obsessed over it, but all is well.
It looks like your crown race might not be on all the way. I’d take the fork off and check that. If it isn’t. I’d take it to. Bike shop to get it fixed.
That’s what she said…
I bet your bottom bearing is upside down. It looks like the entire crown race is not sitting inside the bearing properly as the entire race is still visible.
That’s meant to be like that. I’ve got the CGR SL and it’s the same as yours. As long as there’s no headset play, you’re good to go.