Was I sold a dangerous/broken bike?

Shifty Geezer

Hi,

I'm a simple commuter who's been cycling the local area for work on a Raleigh for 10 years or more. My Raleigh recently wore out (worn chains, bearings, etc.) and I thought it better to buy a new bike rather than spend the £200 quoted to repair it. I ordered this Corratec replacement bike fropm ChainReaction Cycles. It arrived a couple of months ago. I tightened all the bolts I could see, and started riding. It seemed fine and I was happy with it, other than a twisted back mudguard that rubbed against the wheel and needed lots of twisting between rides to straighten out enough to no longer rub.

A few weeks back while it was hot, there was a clicking in the pedals every rotation. One day I was riding up a usual hill, standing on the pedals, when they gave out from under me. I don't know if my foot slipped from the pedals or if the pedals just gave way, but the sore backside I got is still a bit sore. Now the pedal clicking noise is gone which may be due to the cold weather. I don't know.

Yesterday, I was cycling along a cycle lane on the pavement on a part with ridged tiles, when suddenly the front of my bike gave out and I hit the floor. The handlebars were skewed out of alignment. I was able to twist them back into place and tentively cycled home. I read up about headsets and expansion nuts and tightened the top nut as much as I could, but the handlebars could not be secured rigidly to the front wheel, and if I trap the wheel between my legs and apply a medium amount of force to the handlebars, I can twist them out of alignment. I also found the headset bolts/things were loose.

My question is whether as a buyer I am expected to tighten the headset (the manual just says tighten all bolts), or should this all be set up properly by the bike shop? My other bike was bought in a bike shop. Do headsets ever work loose as a natural course of events or was the bike not set up properly?

Cheers

no9ismine

I know from a rather embarrassing experience that the bolt on top of headset cap and stem bolts on side of fork steerer have to be tightened/loosened in the correct order. I'm afraid I can't remember which order but I worked it out by trial and error.

Welsh_Wizard

I recently bought a bike under my works 'cycle to work' scheme. Received said bike and went out riding after noting the 'this bike has been expertly built' note in the box.

3 x downhill tracks later and about 200 miles and I take it to my LBS for general check up. I didn't feel 'great' on it from the other but I put that down to inexperience.

Headset loose and loads of play. Rear hydraulic brake loose off the frame and ready to fall off. This was the most dangerous bit as if I had yanked the brakes too much and it had come off, chances are it would have ripped itself off the eyelets causing my frame to be a right off. Loads of little bolts here and there that need tightening.

Moral of the story - LBS service before riding any bike given or bought in the future 'just in case'. Not worth the risk!!

desweller

The bike is not dangerous per se; rather the quality of assembly is at fault.

Since you assembled it, I think you'll have to chalk this one up to experience and maybe get some advice from your LBS next time!

Shifty Geezer

Hi Des,

I didn't assemble this one. It came preassembled in a HUGE box; I only had to add the handlebars. that's one of the reasons for buying from Charin Reaction, as I don't trust my own mechanical aptitude. So my concern is that they didn't do they job properly - is there any scenario where a headset properly assembled can be expected to work loose such that the owner should be checking it? I have a QA checklist that has a tick next to the Headset item, suggesting its been checked, so how could it then become loose?

Actually, scrub that, this is the wrong *^&$%£@ checklist!! I don't have disc brakes so why is that item ticked? I do have a bell so why isn't that ticked? And, just checking, that's the wrong damned bike serial number!! No wonder my bike is dodgy - no-one actually QA'd it. Grrrrr!!!

monkeycowboy

The headset is tightened by attaching the stem (edit), so I'd say the balls firmly in your court.

Edit - Doh, changed handlebars to stem.

schlepcycling

The bolt in the top cap is used in conjunction with usually either a bung (carbon forks) or a star nut to preload the bearings in the headset. Once the headset bearings are tight then you tighten the stem bolts which hold everything in place. Once the stem bolts are sufficiently tight the top cap bolt doesn't actually need to be tight because you can't unload the bearings at that point. It sounds like you didn't tighten the stem bolts enough.

desweller

MonkeyCowboy wrote:

The headset is tightened by attaching the handlebars, so I'd say the balls firmly in your court.

Not on any bike I've seen.

To the OP: the part that's come loose is the stem. The stem keeps the headset assembly clamped up. It shouldn't come loose once correctly assembled, but it's probably one of the things I'd have checked.

Things I would have expected to be tight:

Bottom bracket cups
Derailleur fasteners (but I'd still have checked them, especially the front as it's easy for it to take a whack in transit)

Everything else, including cranks, brake fixing bolts and pedals, I'd have checked. Especially if there was a note saying 'tighten every screw you can see'!

monkeycowboy

It looks like the bike has a threaded headset, which I would have expected to be loaded and tightened upon reciept?

fobose

I bought my cube nature from chainreactioncycles last March and can say that it was put together well, all I did was attached the pedals, position the handle bars and got on it to ride it home from work I can't remember if I checked anything else, I probably presumed it was all put together ok in the first place (will be double checking everything now if I get a new bike though!).

desweller

MonkeyCowboy wrote:

It looks like the bike has a threaded headset, which I would have expected to be loaded and tightened upon reciept?

Good spot.

Threaded headsets don't clamp the stem. You have to tighten the screw in the top of the stem (pretty tightly, actually) to get the wedge in the bottom of the stem to grip the inside of the steerer. If you don't put enough torque on it, you get a loose stem...

cooldad

Bikes need regular routine maintenence.

gezebo

Shifty Geezer wrote:

My question is whether as a buyer I am expected to tighten the headset (the manual just says tighten all bolts), or should this all be set up properly by the bike shop? My other bike was bought in a bike shop. Do headsets ever work loose as a natural course of events or was the bike not set up properly?

Yes, on the basis that it arrived in a box through the post and you had to adjust the part that came loose yourself before you could ride it. Just chalk it up to experience and be thankful you've only got a sore ass!

Shifty Geezer

Thanks for all the advice so far. I'm learning!

DesWeller wrote:

Threaded headsets don't clamp the stem. You have to tighten the screw in the top of the stem (pretty tightly, actually) to get the wedge in the bottom of the stem to grip the inside of the steerer. If you don't put enough torque on it, you get a loose stem...

I'm unable to secure the stem. The top bolt is as tight as I can make it and the handlebars can still be twisted out of position. The Evans cycleshop mechanic tightened everything up but they couldn't secure the handlebars either. I don't know if that's a fault of the bike, my first expectation, or if maybe that's a safety feature - maybe if the front wheel gets jammed it's considered better to have some give in the handlebars?? But at the moment I feel really uncomfortable riding the bike because I don't know what sort of jolt will throw the front wheel out of alisngment. I'm thinking a little angle knocked from mounting a kerb would be enough to throw me while cycling again.

u33db

Perhaps put a picture up of the stem/headset so we can see exactly what setup you have?

supersonic

It sounds like a quill stem with wedge. This may be faulty - but almost all I have seen in the past will give with a lot of force ie a crash, or you trying to twist it hard. Under normal use they should stay put - however is smoething I would frequently check.

If jolts are knocking it out, then I think there could be a fault.

supersonic

desweller

That's a surprise. They normally work very well, even if you thoroughly daub them with grease.

Perhaps you have a cracked steerer tube. I'd probably carry out a check of the tube next, although it's a bit of a fiddle undoing the headset.

Shifty Geezer

Okay, thanks. I'll take it down the LBS and ask them to give it a thorough examination!

beancounter

Shifty Geezer wrote:

Okay, thanks. I'll take it down the LBS and ask them to give it a thorough examination!

Yes that'll go down well, local bike shops love people turning up with cheap internet-bought bikes that don't work....

bc

u33db

Those quill stems sometime come with a bit of grease around the wedge to stop stuff seizing.

If you can still move the bars after tightening then maybe someone has gone daft with the grease (unlikely but maybe) and thats whats causing the looseness.

Best thing to do before going near a LBS and wasting money is undo the top bolt and put the whole quill stem out and see whats what....it should be obvious if theres anything wrong.

desweller

If his bike shop is any good then they won't care where the bike was bought. They'd be fools to themselves to consider turning away the business.

I always daub a lot of grease on my quill-stem equipped bikes as they're not very resistant to water ingress, have never had a problem getting it to grip though.

Shifty Geezer

beancounter wrote:

Shifty Geezer wrote:

Okay, thanks. I'll take it down the LBS and ask them to give it a thorough examination!

Yes that'll go down well, local bike shops love people turning up with cheap internet-bought bikes that don't work....

bc

It was a £650 RRP Corratec.

Anonymous

Given labour has a 100% mark up, I'd say they don't mind too much.

rolf_f

beancounter wrote:

Shifty Geezer wrote:

Okay, thanks. I'll take it down the LBS and ask them to give it a thorough examination!

Yes that'll go down well, local bike shops love people turning up with cheap internet-bought bikes that don't work....

bc

Yeah, you're right. I get that all the time with my car. I keep having to take it back to Sweden for repair as none of the local garages sold it to me and refuse to service it..........

Gay69

In answer to the OP maybe.

fossyant

It will be an ahead headset, so tightening the top bolt will do bugger all - you only use that to pre-load bearings. The two bolts on the rear of the stem clamp that to the steerer.

Ham fisted fiddling ! Google Park Tools Instruction Videos.

desweller

fossyant wrote:

It will be an ahead headset, so tightening the top bolt will do bugger all - you only use that to pre-load bearings. The two bolts on the rear of the stem clamp that to the steerer.

Ham fisted fiddling ! Google Park Tools Instruction Videos.

The photo seems to indicate that it's a threaded headset, not an aheadset.

Shifty Geezer

Yes, it's a threaded headset with only the one top-bolt.