Stiff Steerer - advice please

[Mista Preston]

Hello all

I recently had a slight knocking noise coming from my handlebar stem when I was out and about. I tightened up the main bolt that goes through the stem into stearer and gave it a little grease and check nothing looked wrong. Now my stem is back on but feels a little stiff when turning?.

My question is do I need to loosen it up a bit of so how do i know when its too loose/tight or is this a case of needing a torque wrench?

Many thanks

Mr P

 

[Mr Pig]

Is this an Ahead set, like this?

 

[Mista Preston]

Is this an Ahead set, like this?

yip. The main bolt that runs through is the one I tightened

 

[Oldlegs]

What you need to do is loosen the stem bolts (the horizontal ones). Adjust the vertical bolt (trial and error) until there's no play in the forks and the bars turn with smoothly. Then tighten the stem bolts.

When stem bolts are tight the whole unit is clamped solid and you can't adjust anything with the vertical bolt.

Hope thats reasonably clear.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Mr Pig]

If it's too tight the movement will feel stiff and notchy. If it's too loose you'll feel play in the stem, it'll rock up and down/side to side slightly.

The bolts on the side are what hold the stem in place. The top bolt just holds it in position until the side bolts are tightened. After that you could take the top bolt out and throw it away and it would make no difference! If you take the top bolt and cap off you'll see how it works.

 

[Mista Preston]

Thanks for the advice. Done as you have all said and it all seem AOK now.

Many thanks all

Mr P