Morning all,

I recently bought a Spearfish, tapered headset style frame. I noticed last week a bit of knocking from it, thought it was the saddlebag, so ignored… then yesterday I noticed it again, so took everything off, still there. Flipped the bike over and tried moving the forks and get about 1mm play on the bottom end of headset. Tried loosening/checking it all and can’t dial out the play

Not had this before, so a bit confused as to the likely cause. I’m guessing it’s possibly a missing/incorrect steerer stem crown race, or… well.. what you rekon ?

Likely to just drop it into my LBS as these fangled tapered headsets seem to be a minefield for sizes etc and let him fix it at his leisure.

When it’s tightened down, there is a gap between the top cap and the steerer isn’t there?

Yeah, everything looks perfectly normal in that context mate, I’ve fitted several sets of forks in the past and even built bikes from scratch, although due to lack of press usually use the LBS for headsets. I should get more of an opportunity today to spanner and check, but pretty happy it all looks ‘as it should’

Is it possible that he crown race isn’t the one that came with the headset (someone should start a thread asking if they all come with a crown race)?

There are different shoulder angles in use and using the wrong one can cause problems.

But, as above – first make sure you have all the right bits in the right order and that there’s enough space to preload correctly.

The head tube is oval?
Do the cups rock?

wwaswas – Member

Is it possible that he crown race isn’t the one that came with the headset (someone should start a thread asking if they all come with a crown race)?

mrmoofo – Member

The head tube is oval?
Do the cups rock?

It’s completely possible mate. I bought the bike used, was previously owned by an STWer before that.. but possible.

Seems to be the fork at the crown where the movement is rather than the cups… but I’m a long way from an expert.

first thing is to drop the fork and make sure the bearings don’t move in the frame, at least rule out frame damage.

Sounds like a plan, will do so a bit later as we’re moving house this weekend, so just waiting for BB to be switched off in current house, before then heading to new house where the bikes are.

Whenever I’ve had headset issues, it is generally that as the headset has settled in, the steerer is too long and there is no longer 3-5mm clearance between the top of the steerer and the top cap. In this case, no amount of tightening will sort it, the only solution is to cut/file down the steerer.

To test if this is the case, you could add another 5mm spacer, tighten up and see if the play is still there. 2 minute job to at least rule out the problem. (This problem would cause looseness at the lower bearing and headset knocking)

the only solution is to cut/file down the steerer.

or put a 3-5mm spacer on top of the stem.

I’ve got a couple of steerer spacers, so no worries there… I’ll have a peek in a little while.

Www – sorry – ninja edit whilst you posted

Well would you believe that LOL. I undid the top cap and I had about 1mm of gap, removed spacer, fitted one so I have about 4mm-5mm spacing and my headset play is gone… sorted..

Thanks all.

Excellent! Now if you can tell me how to fit a carbon steerer plug correctly on my new road bike, we’ll call it quits!!!

I had this on my last build, a 5-6mm gap had shrunk down to 1-2mm when compressed.