Front wheel feels.. loose?

yeachan153

Hi,

I've got an allez 16 2010. Riding the other day, I felt the front wheel was a little loose. Dont know how to describe the sound, but road chatter made the wheels seem as if there was a tiny bit of space the wheels could go upwards into the frame before coming to a dead end. It's not visually noticable, so I went home, and lifted the bike about 5cm and gently brought it down again,and the noise was there again. The back wheel seems pretty tight, because it doesn't budge, or make a sound, but the front wheels just sound.. a bit loose; really lost for words here. I did the quick release as tight as I thought I could without breaking the carbon forks.. Any idea what this is? Is it safe to ride? You cant move the wheel with your hand, at least you cant notice it, but again, riding on the road and small potholes make the bike sound like it travels up into the frame for a split, split second before coming to a stop. Like a tiny collision sound. Bike has never been in a collison. However the other day when I was replacing my inner tube, and did the quick release tight, I heard a 'crack', but gave the forks an inspection, dont think theres any cracks in the fork.

Thanks

amaferanga

Are you sure its not the headset that's making the noise?

yeachan153

I'm now quite sure its not the wheels. I tightned them up, and the headset as suggested, but no joy. However, every time the bike is lifted up, a small gap appears where the forks join into the headset. This is very strange; I did align the bars a few days back, and have just used my allen keys to tighten them up very strongly, yet there is still this gap!

ShutUpLegs

yeachan153 wrote:

I'm now quite sure its not the wheels. I tightned them up, and the headset as suggested, but no joy. However, every time the bike is lifted up, a small gap appears where the forks join into the headset. This is very strange; I did align the bars a few days back, and have just used my allen keys to tighten them up very strongly, yet there is still this gap!

Did you undo the big bolt on top of the bars?

yeachan153

I tightened it as tightly as I could. Do i need to undo it to see something?

Zendog1

You need to loosen off the bolts holding on on the stem, tighten the bolt on top of the stem until the play goes but the steering still moves smoothly. Then tighten the stem bolts to lock the whole lot solid.

see here for a vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgAiElcaVjs

yeachan153

Did just that - Working fully again.

Apparently assembling a bike for the first time does come with problems! Many thanks for your help.

sungod

yeachan153 wrote:

Did just that - Working fully again.

Apparently assembling a bike for the first time does come with problems! Many thanks for your help.

if you're new to it, there's a good source of info here...

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help