Got a gravel frame built up at local shop. I mentioned the gap and they say it was missing a dust cover.
Not buying it. Bearing is also visibly not sitting flush in the bearing seat. And bearings feel rough when turning the bars.
Is it a wrong sized bearing? Fork not cut to proper length?
by Darknwise
10 Comments
The headset “dust” cover is kind of important.
They are also cheap – no idea why they wouldn’t just replace if they lost or damaged the original
Can you hold the front brake and handlebars and wiggle the fork back and forth? Or does doing that feel solid?
No. That cannot be normal.
Every bike has a gap there, some more than others. Otherwise the spacers would rub the frame. Why do you not believe the bike shop? You mention the bearings feel rough, are they brand new bearings? Do the cables run through the headset? You could be feeling the cables, which there’s nothing anyone can do about that.
I’d say no. I work with bike assembly and they either installed something incorrectly or forgot to install the dust cap (some bikes with internals like this don’t come with one).
Check that the metal compression C ring is flush with the bottom transition spacer above it. It should have 2 pins that align with holes in the spacer. If they are not put together correctly, there will be a gap and the bearing won’t rotate properly.
You said its a frame up build, who picked out the parts? Looks like the frame has an “integrated” headset where the bearings sits right into the frame without a press in cup, and different frames can have slightly different bearing depths. The bearing not sitting fully into the frame like that could be normal, but that gap is definitely bigger than I’d expect, I wonder if the headset is designed for a frame where the bearings sits right sits deeper in? The headset feeling rough could be unrelated, it’s likely just over tightened, try loosening the stem bolts and backing off the top cap bolt a bit.
That does look like a big gap. If they knew it was missing a dust cover; they should have reached out to you to see how you wanted to proceed. Like did you forget the cover? Do you want to procure it? Shall we? Forget it? But that is your (the customer) decision. As long as it leaves safe. And it should not be rough. I would have them make it right. Whatever that entails. They are supposed to be the experts and help you.
Isn’t the “spacer” on the bottom the dust cover?
It looks like it should be able to just fit around the compression ring if it sat a little bit lower. Maybe it’s upside down or something?
lol did they also say that frame fit you? You have 5 inches of spacers.