Am sending forks for a service, and currently my bike is in some bits outside my garage.
Handlebars are off as is wheel and have cut cable tie so brake is off too.
Just need to remove stem of forks from the rest of frame (head bit)
I can’t see anything else to unbolt, and it’s resolutely not coming out.
Have I missed something? What do I do now?

Help…… please…… someone……

ABx

Tap the top of the steerer tube with a rubber mallet. Should then pop out.

sometimes in the top headset under the grease cover is a expandable triangle shape piece of metal round that touches on the fork steerer and needs to prised up so the fork can go down

as above. Tap down gently with a rubber mallet or a hammer / block of wood. This should free up the compression ring, if there is one. You can then slide it off the top and the fork should then drop free.

BEWARE: sometimes the act of freeing up the compression ring allows the forks to drop out under their own weight. Be ready to catch them or at least have something soft* under them so they don’t land on the concrete.

* not your toes.

Dammit why is it always more difficult than it was supposed to be?? 👿
Have tried the rubber mallet (towel wrapped round normal hammer)
Not sure what the grease cover is. Can’t see anything that looks like it might come off, or a triangle bit of metal.

Thanks for suggestions… any more? I got to go to work soon and they’re being collected tomorrow 🙁

Is there a retaining clip in the headset? look the specs up or read Park tools website to double check.

It should be easy.

It’s a bit hard from what you’ve described to understand what stage you’re at. Have you got the stem off?

right will have another go with hammer. What do I slide off the top? The compression ring? Where is that?

Thanks so much for help, I’m trying to be more mechanically minded about my bike, but it’s not going very well.

Remove stem, you should just be left with the steerer sticking out.

Use a Rubber Mallet or Block of wood and normal hammer. Hit it pretty hard. Make sure the forks are off the floor at the time. They should budge.

Quick someone stop him lol

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=65

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=111

As above, it’s usually the compression washer in the top part of the headset that’s locking it all in place. You may well need to whack (ah, Beavis and butthead…) the top of the steerer quite hard to get it to move but once it’s gone a bit it should free up fairly quickly.

Compression ring shown here (silver, with a split in it):

Hmmm… pic doesn’t seem to work – direct link here

You guys are very helpful! I have removed everything except the steering column from the headtube. (nice diagrams)

I have whacked it harder than I want to (it’s my bike!!) using hammer/towel, hammer/yellowpages and finally have found some wood. It’s still not moving. Should I go and hit it even harder? The wood is only 1 – 2 inches thick. I don’t want to damage anything.

Feeling slightly defeated.

clubber i can see your pic

Can you post pics?

Don’t damage the bike-take it to a shop and pay them and watch what they do.

You guys are very helpful! I have removed everything except the steering column from the headtube. (nice diagrams)

I have whacked it harder than I want to (it’s my bike!!) using hammer/towel, hammer/yellowpages and finally have found some wood. It’s still not moving. Should I go and hit it even harder? The wood is only 1 – 2 inches thick. I don’t want to damage anything.

Feeling slightly defeated.

You will most likely need a lot more force than you’re applying currently. Some forks drop out of a headset as soon as the stem is undone, some require a hell of a whack to remove.

Anna, given the tools you say you’ve got to hand, here’s my advice. Ask a friend/passer by to hold the frame and forks up whilst you place the bit of wood you have on top of the steerer tube of the forks, and then give it an almighty whack with the hammer.

I’ve removed one with a hammer and block of wood before, it’s not the easiest thing to do. A Rubber mallet makes it so much easier, cos the mallet has a lot more weight (and hence force) to it, but also the soft hitting surface of the mallet means that psychologically you’re not afraid of damaging your bike.

Thanks Mark. I’ve given up and feel way more miserable about it than I should. The new me wasn’t going to rely on blokes and bike shops, but it obviously needs to.
Forks service postponed, going down LBS tomorrow.
Thanks all 🙁

I’ll come round tonight and hit it for you if you like. How big is your mallet 😉 It can be hard to really belt something you love, but it’s necessary sometimes.

Forks service postponed, going down LBS tomorrow.
Thanks all

Send them my regards….! 😉

(Ian’ll do it for a fig roll. Then again, he’ll do pretty much anything for a fig roll…..)

You do have to hit it quite hard sometimes. If you can smack it and get it loose, then you can push the forks up a bit which will show you the compression wedge part – you can then pull on that directly (or put a screwdriver in the slot) to get it off.