Headset Play

campagsarge

There is play in the headset of my road bike - when I apply the front brakes, the forks move back and forth a fraction or so. I first thought something was wrong when I was getting vibrations on the bars when descending.

Can I make any adjustments to remove this play at all? I found this link on the Park Tool website which I will have a go at but can anyone make any other suggestions?

The headset itself is a threadless 1-1/8th integrated FSA one.

Should the steerer column be shorter than the stem as shown in the image on the Park site as mine is not - like they say, spacers will sort that out.

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

Thanks

andyp

Don't Park have a section on adjusting threadless headsets? It's one of the easiest jobs to do yourself once you know what you're doing.

Get an allen key and loosen the two bolts that clamp the stem to the steerer. Then carefully tighten the bolt in the cap on the top of the steerer until you've removed any play. Be careful about over tightening this though as you can cause damage to the headset and the fork. Once you're happy with the bearing adjustment do up the two clamp bolts on the stem.

Simple.

campagsarge

Thanks Andyp, futher investigation on the link has revealed just that - you're instructions are spot on thanks. Simple indeed!

The clocks going back an hour last night has messed with my karma - I should have scrolled down the Park article to the bit that says: "Headset Adjustment: Threadless". Says it all really! :roll:

Think I need to read up on headsets a bit more!

Monty Dog

On your question of fork steerer length, make sure that steerer top cap when sat on the stem does not hit the top of the fork steerer . star nut / expander plug, otherwise you give yourself no room for bearing adjustment - try sticking a spacer under the top cap first to see if that makes a difference rather than chopping the top of your steerer.