Headset help needed

gubber12345

Hi all
Changed the stem on my gravel bike for a slightly longer one and now for whatever reason I cannot for the life of me get the play out of the headset.

When I hold the front brake on and rock the bike the play in it is awful....I've completely stripped it and cleaned/regreased everything and put it all back together as it should but to no avail....all bearings are good so no reason why it shouldn't seat right...I'm at a loss...any ideas why it won't ??
TIA

pblakeney

New stem may have a lower stack height so you need a bigger spacer on top.
Maybe.

gubber12345

pblakeney said:

New stem may have a lower stack height so you need a bigger spacer on top.
Maybe.

Never actually thought on that mate...might be worth taking a spacer off another bike and trying that to see if it works..nothing beats a try
Thanks for that idea pal...much appreciated 👍

ti_yred

gubber12345 said:

Hi all
Changed the stem on my gravel bike for a slightly longer one and now for whatever reason I cannot for the life of me get the play out of the headset.

When I hold the front brake on and rock the bike the play in it is awful....I've completely stripped it and cleaned/regreased everything and put it all back together as it should but to no avail....all bearings are good so no reason why it shouldn't seat right...I'm at a loss...any ideas why it won't ??
TIA

Be interested to see if this works for you. I have the almost exact same problem. It's always been an issue on my Kinesis GFTi v2. Just fitted new headset bearings and once again cant take the play out of it. Same stack height etc. Been wracking my tiny brain to work out how the mechanics of the internal crown race are affected by the pressure applied by the stem cap and what I'm missing.

gubber12345

ti_yred said:

gubber12345 said:

Hi all
Changed the stem on my gravel bike for a slightly longer one and now for whatever reason I cannot for the life of me get the play out of the headset.

When I hold the front brake on and rock the bike the play in it is awful....I've completely stripped it and cleaned/regreased everything and put it all back together as it should but to no avail....all bearings are good so no reason why it shouldn't seat right...I'm at a loss...any ideas why it won't ??
TIA

Be interested to see if this works for you. I have the almost exact same problem. It's always been an issue on my Kinesis GFTi v2. Just fitted new headset bearings and once again cant take the play out of it. Same stack height etc. Been wracking my tiny brain to work out how the mechanics of the internal crown race are affected by the pressure applied by the stem cap and what I'm missing.

ti_yred said:

gubber12345 said:

Hi all
Changed the stem on my gravel bike for a slightly longer one and now for whatever reason I cannot for the life of me get the play out of the headset.

When I hold the front brake on and rock the bike the play in it is awful....I've completely stripped it and cleaned/regreased everything and put it all back together as it should but to no avail....all bearings are good so no reason why it shouldn't seat right...I'm at a loss...any ideas why it won't ??
TIA

Be interested to see if this works for you. I have the almost exact same problem. It's always been an issue on my Kinesis GFTi v2. Just fitted new headset bearings and once again cant take the play out of it. Same stack height etc. Been wracking my tiny brain to work out how the mechanics of the internal crown race are affected by the pressure applied by the stem cap and what I'm missing.

I added another 3mm spacer and tried again but same result...was getting really frustrated ....so took it to my lbs and the mechanic had a look...turns out in my case I had it perfect albeit having the stem cap a little to tight...rurns out it was the brake pads in the calipers that were slightly loose causing what I thought was the headset moving...are u using disc braked it may be worth a look...i

ti_yred

Hi mate,
Glad you got yours sorted. Mine was even simpler...checked it again yesterday and like a complete ar$e I'd rebuilt the headset and forgotten to pop the wedge in...after cleaning it all up I'd left the wedge on the workbench.
Slaps head....