Wobbly forks. Is this normal?

Evening all.

If I apply my front brake, I can rock the bike back and forth a bit. As if the forks are a bit loose somewhere or there’s some play at the head tube. Is it normal to have a bit of play there?

Cheers!

No, headset is loose or bearings need replacing.

Could be play in the fork bushings or even the pads moving in the calipers a little.

Are they suspension forks? If so the fork bushings should have a minimal ammount of play in them which you can feel by rocking the wheel back and forth with the front brake on. Try turning the bars 90 degrees and rock bike back & forward, if you still play it will most likely be the headset that needs tightening

mikewsmith – Member
No, headset is loose or bearings need replacing.

Thanks.

Try turning the bars 90 degrees and rock bike back & forward, if you still play it will most likely be the headset that needs tightening

Good idea!

Will have a crack in the morning.

Turn the bars 90 deg and then rock again with just the front brake on. If there’s no movement, return to parallel and apply the rear brake and rock, then the front and rock. If you can find movement, it may be coming from the pads in the calliper, nothing to worry about.

Thanks chaps. Will have a mess around in the morning and report back.

Good trick with headset. Is to do a v sign with your fingers between the fork crown and lower cup/race (knuckles down) – a finger front and back I find work best.

Your fingers may then pick up any movement by touch on the palm side.

Works better with some configurations / headsets than others

Last time I had this my front disc bolts were loose

Headset is the usual cause and first to consider. Apply front brake and gentle rock bike back and fork taking care not to compress the fork. Like garage-dweller says, fingers on the top or bottom of the headset between headset and steerer tube will let you feel if there’s play. If so, slack off stem bolts and tighten top cap bolt. If that fixes it, tighten stem bolts again and good to go. If not, replace headset bearing(s). Quite likely the bottom bearing needs doing before the top. Also might notice grinding when turning the bars.

If not that, next is checking play between lower and uppers on fork. And also check brake calliper is not loose.

@tedspecial

its normal for forks to have some movement in the bushings when static – its what’s called ‘hydrodynamic bushing gap’.

When the fork cycles through normal movement, lubrication oil coats the bushings and fills this minute gap, allowing the stanchions to move up and down with minimal friction on a film of oil.

If there was no gap, you’d have metal stanchions grinding on teflon /metal bushings.

After taking the headset out of the equation, try pumping the forks up and down 6-8 times with body weight on them, and see what happens.

IF the forks are old and either the stanchions or bushings are worn, you can get excess play; and at times with poor QC (bushings not matched to stanchions) even a new fork may be loose or bind, but that’s another matter

It was a loose headset. Can’t believe I had to ask to be honest. I do all my own maintenance but seem to forget it all by the time spring comes around 🙂

So thanks everyone!

Next problem:

Creaky peddles/cranks/BB. Something’s creaking down there when I pedal. Any ideas?

@ted

As you’ve had a loose headset, check bearings for damage. If OK, smear cups and metal parts with grease and reassemble.

Modern bike frame act like sound amplifier, a bike that clicks when pedalling can actually be a head set issue as each stroke loads/unloads the headset.

Then check simple things like swapping pedals, dirt in seat clamp, try greasing wheels skewers, before pulling cranks and BB apart

Good idea. I just tightened it up this morning and went riding 🙂

I’ll re-pack it in the week.

Oh, dunno if it’s related; but a couple of times the chain kind of slipped. Like when putting down some serious pressure on the pedal. Gave me a right shock as I nearly came off. I had a look and the cassette is a tiny bit wobbly too 😐 Like a couple of mill play. Think I need a bigger spacer or something.

Maybe I just need to lay off the pies. Giving the old steed some proper punishment.