What has happened to my headset...........

Weeman1973

..............and how do I fix it?????

I am a novice with all but the bare minimum when it comes to maintenance, so not really sure what has happened to my Planet X Nanaolight.

I removed the stem to use on my new bike and now I cannot get the headset to tighten as the receptacle inside just comes away with the bolt.

I taken some images so you hopefully can understand what I mean:
[img][/img]http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy23 ... 33AF85.jpg




As you can see, there is just a hole inside the headset where the retaining bolt used to tighten into. As I said the receptacle (not sure what it's called?) which the head bolt tightens into has just come away. Can this be fixed, if so which parts do I need or am I best as a novice to take it to my LBS to fix up?

Cheers for any help in advance.

cycleclinic

You have an expanding plug. The wedge that bolt tightens into is probably on the floor or at the bottom of you forks. Find it and reassemble. It should be self explanitary once you have found the missing piece. If it's lost get a new exanpder plug. You have a carbon steerer on your forks no doubt so try and use a star fangled nut if you like the your steerer tube to be intact.

antfly

thecycleclinic wrote:

You have an expanding plug. The wedge that bolt tightens into is probably on the floor or at the bottom of you forks. Find it and reassemble. It should be self explanitary once you have found the missing piece. If it's lost get a new exanpder plug. You have a carbon steerer on your forks no doubt so try and use a star fangled nut if you like the your steerer tube to be intact.

I think you mean don't use a star-fangled nut..

g00se

I did the same thing - the top part of the bung has separated and come off with the top cap and screw - the rest is stuck in the steerer. When you get it back together, make sure you grease the bolt coming down from the top cap (the one you unscrewed) so it screws into the bung (and doesn't stick and turn the threaded bung tightening wedge).

It might be that the remains of the bung seem stuck inside the steerer but they should move as the wedge is out - probably just dug into the steerer a little. Get something thin and 'L' shaped (spoke) through the centre, under the bottom edge on the bung - and pull it up. The plates of the bung may separate but they should be fairly simple to put back together again.

You can sort of see how one works in this picture.

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/FSP ... _2___11_18

Normally, the main body of the bung drops into the top of the steerer and you use a 6mm allen key to turn the centre of the bung which forces the plates out to grip the steerer. Once that's secure to the given torque, you screw the top cap and bolt into the smaller threaded hole in the centre of the bung - and preload it as normal.

cycleclinic

I missed the not out didn't I.

Yossie

As an aside, any chance of some piccies of the bike - I was looking at getting one of those Guru frames but wanted to see what they actually looked like outside of P/Xs internet brochure.

I reckon its going to be well cool.

Weeman1973

Thanks everyone - makes sense now.

I managed to remove this from my forks / steerer which I guess is what is left of my expander bung:

http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy23 ... E1D836.jpg

It looks to me as though the actual bung is broken (what a genius I am ) and that fits into the other sleeve which then fits into the steerer tube? the nut then pushes out into the tube when you tighten the bolt?

As I need a new one, will this do the trick:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/deda-expander-b ... tAod91oAPA

Nothing against the Planet X one (in fact I would prefer that to match the bike) but I don't need anything else from them currently and would have to pay postage whereas Wiggle is free postage. If I bought this Deda one I take it my PX end cap & bolt would fit into it?

Weeman1973

Yossie wrote:

As an aside, any chance of some piccies of the bike - I was looking at getting one of those Guru frames but wanted to see what they actually looked like outside of P/Xs internet brochure.

I reckon its going to be well cool.

Yossie - I will try and get some photo's of it once it's repaired as it will be up for sale. I love it and it is superlight & as you say looks cool too. I bought it 2nd hand but it is too big for me as a Med frame & I have just bought the Ridley Orion XS which is a much better fit.

PM me if you are interested in buying or for more info

g00se

I would expect the cap and bolt to fit - they're all pretty much standard - though I do have an FSA carbon cap that has a underside that is quite deep so that it needs a spacer above the stem to fit.

I have the same Deda bung and it's very good. However, it is the type that has the top part of the bung sit above the steerer - so that may have some bearing (see above - it fouled the long cap so a bigger top spacer was needed).

Finally looking at your pics, it seems that your stem sits higher than then top of your steerer? Is it a carbon steerer? If it is, then this is a bit of a no-no as the stem clamp may damage the carbon. The steerer should - ideally - protrude a little above the stem clamp and you should use a small spacer above.

ride_whenever

My favourite carbon bungs are the steel ones you expoy in. Dirt cheap, and once you've got the fit right they'll NEVER come loose.

Weeman1973

ride_whenever wrote:

My favourite carbon bungs are the steel ones you expoy in. Dirt cheap, and once you've got the fit right they'll NEVER come loose.

Sounds like the job - Any idea's where I can get one from as a regular search throws this Deda style up