Novice Headset, Chainring & BB Question & Help

Anonymous

Hi

I have just purchased a felt z85 as my first road bike, only been on it for 40 miles so far and getting use to it but I have a couple of queries.

Should the headset spacers be slanted like in the picture?



Also it came with this: "Shimano Tiagra 9sp Compact groupset with 50/34T" And I wondered if I could change the 34T chainring as it it not very hilly where I live and something a bit bigger would be more use. If so can you point me in the right direction on what I could buy without spending mega £££.



And finallly I noticed a slight creaking noise comming from the left side of the bottom bracket, I only get this when I apply a bit of extra pedal pressure such as standing up to go faster up a hill. Any ideas what this could be, maybe it will settle in after a few more miles? It is not the pedals as i have tested these on another bike.

Could be the crank arm or BB?

If anyone can help that would be great thanks!

Wooliferkins

Presuming you bought it from a shop? No the spacers shouldn't look like that should be a nice smooth stack with the top cap neatly on top. If 2nd hand not difficult to tidy.

Yes you can put a bigger chainring on the inner but don't go too mad or you may get a shifting faff.

Crank may have come a little loose again if new then back to the retailer if 2nd hand then a trip to the LBS for a look and retorque.

Weejie54

Looks like the bolt circle diameter (BCD) for your chainset is 110mm.

One source for rings is - http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php ... b2s149p292

Anonymous

Hi Woolifer

Yeah It was from epic cycles, really not sure why it it like that, I will drop them a email about it & fix it myself as the shops over an hours drive away.

Cheers

Simon

Anonymous

Thanks Wee I will take a look at those once I have sorted the other problems,

Woo not sure what you mean with:

don't go too mad or you may get a shifting faff.

Thanks

neeb

You should certainly be able to get a 36 tooth ring to replace the 34 tooth, this will make the jump between the outer and inner ring more comfortable and effectively the same as a 53/39. If you still don't need the lowest gears after that, go for a tighter sprocket set next time you change the cassette (e.g. 11-23).

Anonymous

Cheers Need I will look at getting a 39 then, shouldnt cost too much, I will see how I get on the the 34 for a bit longer first.

neeb

Re: the spacers - I'd get them to replace them with some better ones. The ones on it at the moment (the top one at least) must be too broad or have weird internal beveling or something. A simple spacer (e.g. a carbon one) couldn't be fitted like that, it just fits snugly around the steerer and can't move from side to side at all. Looks better too..

neeb

Cheers Need I will look at getting a 39 then, shouldnt cost too much, I will see how I get on the the 34 for a bit longer first.

You might have more problems getting a 39 for a 110 BCD (although it should still be possible), but 36 should be easy. A 50/36 setup can give you exactly the same spread of gears as a 53/39 setup, if you choose the rear sprockets appropriately and don't need anything bigger than a 50-11 gear (which you shouldn't).

ruswilks

Grease and retighten the crankarms and bolts, it's often a good place to start. But beware bikes are good at transmitting sound to elsewhere- not saying it is definitely the case but with the extra forces through the handlebars when stood up putting the power down, and the state of your headset spacers it wouldn't surprise me to see the noise is actually coming from there!

Anonymous

Thanks Rus

I have just taken the spacers apart to see whats going on there and the pictures explain that now:




Not sure why the insert its slanted like that? It looks like the slanted spacer thing is not the right one? Waiting to see what the stop say.

Thanks for the help.

Simon

roadracedave

Hi Simon,

That Felt uses an angled stem insert. It is there to effectively give you an adjustable stem angle. Depending on whether you have the shim inserted from the top or bottom, or whether the deeper part is at the back or the front effectively gives you an adjustment range of, +/-6°, +/-10° or +/-14°, as is printed on the base of the stem.

Once you have found the angle that you like most, you can then purchase a stem with that angle to save having to have the angles shim and to get the top cap to sit nice and flush.

As the above poster said, you will probably be better off getting a 36T inner ring as they are much more commonly available and shimano produce them so the shifting will be smooth. I believe stronglight or TA do a 110mm BCD 39T chainring but if you were ever to put a lower ratio cassette on the 39T may not be low enough.

Hope that helps

Dave

Anonymous

Thanks for the info Dave just as the shop said, a lot of stuff for me to learn being my first road bike but getting there thanks to the help from this forum!