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Morning all, I have a bit of a problem with a hope headset that keeps getting tighter, & I have no idea why?
To begin with I thought my headtube needed facing, but that doesn't make sense as its consistently tight, not just in one spot. I can adjust it & it feels fine, but I go out for a ride & when I get back its tight again. I have tried taking out a shim (it had two) & that doesn't help.
Does anyone have an Idea why?
Cheers in advance.
Get the exploded diagram from the Hope website, I bet its been assembled in the wrong order or a part is upside down.
What is the shim you've removed? If there was two together, I'm guessing one of them should be somewhere else in the headset (unless you mean stem spacers, in which case they should make no difference.
The shims are there for pre-loading the top cap seal, the less you have the tighter it will press. They're supplied with three, which normally causes next to no contact, usually need two, occasionally need only one. See your Hope dealer for spares if you want to experiment, they usually keep a few in the spares box.
Mine used to do this, I even got Leisure Lakes to take a look at it.
Turns out I was tightening the stem cap bolt up too much and was causing it to bind up.
To fix, only tighten up the bolt just enough so that there is no play in the headset.
To fix, only tighten up the bolt just enough so that there is no play in the headset.
I tighten up to push the Upper Tapered Ring in and then back off a bit:
http://www.cyclistno1.co.uk/features/maintenance/hope-headset-service.htm
Thanks all for the advice, but why does it only tighten after a ride?
Surely if its over tightened then it would be stiff from the start?
Cheers.
Are you using a head doctor or SFN?
SFN, why?