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I'm fully expecting a bit of a bashing here as it's a noddy topic on the face of it.
So, On One Fatty with Smoothie Mixer and standard steel straight fork. 10 mm spacers under stem and around 30mm above (25 & 5) I'm planning to cut in a bit, but making mind up about stem height.
The standard brake and rock test shows movement but it's not clear it's his and not something else (OO Fatty skewers are notorious just to start with)
The top spacers are very loose. I can easily push them round with one finger. The bottom spacer feels better.
I'm at the point of considering a full strip and degrease to check for crap bearings and taking a very close look at Crown race install and sfn depth.
Any suggestions before I rip it all apart again? I've never had this trouble with any of my other bikes, but this one was sh to me and I've no idea who did the initial build.
Absolutely sure there's enough spacers? (mistake I've made myself with a topcap that needed a bit of spacer for itself). If the spacers can be moved around when it's all assembled then they're not under compression, and they should be.
Spacers shouldn't be loose matey, need more spacers, or a dose of growacet to cut steerer!.
Are you anywhere near Edinburgh? [url= http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ ]There's a shop there[/url] that usually adjusts a headset for free - Ask for Alan 😉
Sounds like it needs tightening up. Whats the gap between the top of the top spacer and the top of the steerer tube? Hopefully 2-3 mm otherwise you can't tighten up correctly via the top cap bolt. I'd loosen the stem, undo the top cap, pull open and throw a bit of grease at the bearings whilst you are at it, retighten the top cap bolt and nip up the stem and see if it is any better.
As above - check the top cap isn't bottoming on the steerer (rather than the spacer). Usually more of a problem (IME) with fatter walled alu steerers - especially if the topcap has a conical shape on the underside. Spacers should not move about like that, so there's not enough compression being put on them. Bottom one has weight of stem to help it.
Once you're happy that it is all properly tight then if you've still got movement, as well as checking brakes (does it still rock with the wheel at 90 degrees), also check cups in frame as an ovalised headtube will give the same symptoms
Aha.
Just had the top cap off and spacers it is by looks. There's about 1mm free depth above steerer. Sure it looked like more earlier. Hey ho, midnight mechanics and all that. :blush:
Oh well, cheap fix FTW!
I'll just take the dogs out before sorting it and then finally get some use out of this lazy Thursday lieu day... 🙂