Hi all, apologies if this is a silly question. I have no experience with bikes, but I found one abandoned and have been fixing it up. It seems my front wheel is diagonal to the handlebars rather than perpendicular. It makes riding the bike feel awkward and I’m looking for a solution.
by TheImmortalHotDog
6 Comments
Loosen the bolt shown in the picture, in the stem. The handlebars will go loose and you can adjust.
The headset(goose neck) that holds the handlebars to the fork has a silver bolt head. Find the correct size Allen key, loosen the bolt slightly, align the bars with the wheel and tighten the bolt back.
Stand at the front of the bike, place the front wheelstraight inline with the frame of the bike, and holf it there between your legs/ knees. Then straighten the handle bars with your arms.
If they wont move undo the allen key bolt a little on the stem on the handle bars, retry and then retighten the bolt.
Loosen that hexagonal screw on the top of the handle bars, you’ll need an Allen wrench, and align it straight while holding the wheel, re tighten that afterwards
If I see correctly, just loosen the Allen bolt on the top (shown in the picture), step in the front of the bike, with the wheel in between you legs and align the stem with the handle bar with the front wheel and the frame. Tighten the bolt back for the same number of turns.
Have a look at [this diagram ](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fflatbike.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F09%2FQuill-Stem-Definition-1024×887.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=2cd70f3abed3a3682de4c32874c8498cf33c86884ebbd9d6db645e5ebf7d6a70&ipo=images).
As others have already said, loosen the bolt (C), and, in an ideal world, you’ll be able to rotate the stem and bars. In reality, the wedge (D) will probably be stuck, and the bars won’t turn. To free the wedge (D), loosen bolt (C) a couple of turns, then give it a couple of taps with a hammer.