Evening All,
Just swapped over to a longer stem on the Yeti.
Did it in the following order:

1. remove handbar using star method of undoing bolts
2. Loosened and removed preload bolt
3. Loosened stem bolts

Slotted in new stem, exactly the same make and model just 15mm longer.

1. Added handlebar and tightened alternating in star method the bolts.
2. Inserted and tightened the preload bolt.

and here is the query..
As I was doing up the preload bolt, I heard a single snap sound. The bolt wasnt particularly tight. So I stopped.

Checked for any movement in headset whilst on a workstand and no movement can be felt.

So continued and then aligned the bars with the front wheel and tightened the stem bolts.

So could I have done some damage resulting in the headset snap noise?

Supposed to be riding Sat or should I get LBS to have a look?

Rgds
J

Sounds like the star nut moving. You tighten the star-preload before the stem bolts…
Edit- are you talking about doing up the four bolts that clamp the bars or the (usually) two that clamp the fork steerer before the star-fangled-preload nut?

WIth the loose stem simply popped over the steerer tube with nothing tightened I firstly added the bars and did up the four bolts holding the bar to the front of the stem.

I then tightened the single preload bolt that goes down the middle of the steerer tube. It was then that I heard the single snap sound whilst tightening.

It wasnt very tight, eg no more than 5Nm, stopped at that point so not sure whether Ive done damage or needs tightening further.

thanks

You’d be surprised how little you actually need to preload the bearings on a headset.

May have been a stem spacer moving or the crown race re seating into the bottom bearing.

I wouldn’t worry about it if there’s no play in the headset and it turns freely.

Phew, thanks guys!

My old headset required some serious torque to get its loose bearings preloaded, and it would make some nasty sounding cracks, but was still absolutely fine, so I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.