I have a Chromag Top cap mounted on a NSBikes quantum lite stem and it came to my attention that there is a gap between the top cap and stem, and i was recommended to add a spacer under the top cap. Do i need to add a spacer or can i take one from below and change stack height but have a spacer to clamp on to, or can i just leave it and run it without worrying?
by Dak3vin
6 Comments
You can run it as is. If you had a carbon steerer fork, you want to run a spacer on top so the stem is better supported.
Id replace 1 of the space below with a slightly longer one
I also had that gap and I did add a spacer. Without it I wasn’t able to keep the steerer from wobbling in the bearings. That caused the bike to behave weird when braking. With an extra spacer the cap can clamp down on everything before tightening the stem.
Yeah. The top cap needs to press on a spacer or the stem directly so you can properly preload the headset bearings. If you have it torqued down directly onto the steerer as pictured you’re not preloading anything.
Simple test, try to spin the spacers under the stem with your fingers. If they spin you got problems. Other test is the headset check, hold the front brake and rock the bike forward and back while you feel the spacer/bearing cover directly above the head tube. If it moves your preload is bad, likely because of the missing spacer.
Or give it a shave, spacer would be way easier though, then you can get proper load before you bite that dope stem in.
Just get a little one