I have been on a relentless quest to sort this and posted a thread about it but it still remains unsolved.

Ive got a new Cotic Soul frame with tapered headtube, with a 1 1/8 steerer Revelations with a hope reducer and hope mix headset.
There is some wobble in the headset if I rock the bike forward with the front brake on. Its done up tight and has been retightened at least 10 times since I built the bike, trying to resolve it.
I have the right amount of spacers and the sfn is low enough.

Any other answers? Am I supposed to be able to pop hope bearings in and out with my hands? I have the 3 spacers above the bearings on the top as well.

Thanks in advance, this is so annoying.

Can you actually see movement in the headset?
Could it be movement in the forks or, indeed, the axle?
Rotate the bars through 90 degrees and look for wobble. If it’s the headset it’ll still be there.

Yeah I can see some movement in the piece that sits above the bearings and below the spacers.
Ive checked that everything else is tight as well.

Missing a compression ring?

Have you double checked the drawing on hope’s website (sorry have to ask)
I’d also check the starnut/ head doctor isn’t slipping in the steerer too

I reinstalled a starnut today, seems pretty snug. I’ll check the diagram now, I’ll kick myself if its something missing.

Have you installed the Tapered Ring?

http://www.hopetech.com/webtop/modules/_repository/documents/HOPEHEADSETS2011Web.pdf

Page2

Something is missing, your spacers aren’t stacked high enough or your star nut is slipping.

Ive got everything except what looks like the top cap o’ring. The top cap meets directly with the stem bolt on mine. Could this cause it?

It shouldn’t matter if there’s enough space for the top cap to fit into.

What is the height difference between the top of the steerer and the top of the topmost spacer?

Ive got the spacers below the stem then my top cap directly on top of the stem. Its probably a 2-3mm above the top of the steerer. Ive tried other configs, ie a smaller spacer below and a little spacer on top leading to the same gap.

I think it’s time to move on.

scotroutes – Member
It shouldn’t matter if there’s enough space for the top cap to fit into.
What is the height difference between the top of the steerer and the top of the topmost spacer?

I already covered that.

Hmm – do you have another spacer you could fit?

Yeah but then the star nut would be too far in for the bolt to fit

You’ve got less than 5mm of bolt in the star nut? How did you fit it?

Nothing on the outside should be seen to be moving whilst rocking the bike back & forth with the front brake applied when you headset is installed correctly

Numpty question I know (Just to ask again) Have you installed the crown race on the fork. The exact crown race that came with the headset.

D.

There’s probably about 3-4mm of bolt through the sfn when tightened, installed with a hammer.

And yes crown race and reducer are installed, all the way as tight as they will go.

Do you have a longer bolt? I’m just thinking that the bottom of the top cap is hitting the top of the steerer before it’s actually pulling everything together. This could be exacerbated if the SFN is in squint.

I only just put this sfn in today. The old one was a fair bit higher and the same problem. I actually knocked it in further to see if it would help and knocked it too far, leading to putting a new one in.

Aye – but did you have any more spacers you could have used with the old one?

Could you file a couple of mm off the top of the steerer?

Yeah I could give that a go tomorrow I reckon. Make the steerer shorter and then use the same amount of spacers you think?

Yep. If you look under the top cap you’ll see that there’s a little “step”. There has to be enough height difference for that to fit into and then a bit more for taking up all the bearing preload. It may be that you just don’t have enough space?

Having said that, this could all be a load of pish but it’s hard to tell without seeing it and I’m just trying to go by your description.

I’ll give it a shot. And its definitely normal for hope bearings to be removable by hand?

Any updates?