Well Crap!!! Need Help

DARE_SUPPORTER said:

I am definately a NOOB (NEWB).

I have a GF Marlin 2010, I just bought a new stem and bars for it. I put the FSA Stem and FSA Bars all in Carbon Fiber. I moved my bike while the stem was off, Now the fork is loose up through the frame...How do I fix this?

Thanks for the help. Sorry if it is a dumb question. Let me know if you need any other info.

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Tighten your headset.

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=65

If you have specific questions regarding the method, feel free to ask!

Do you own a torque wrench? That stuff is sensitive to over tightening and should be done by a professional or risk cracking your stem/handlebars. If you do have a torque wrench, tightening the headset cap bolt while the stem side bolts are loose will fix your problem assuming all the bearings and races are in properly. Follow all torque settings.

you don't need a torque wrench and you don't need to take it to your bike shop.

loosen the bolts that clamp the stem onto the fork's steer tube.

tighten the top cap bolt, which bolts longitudinally into the top of the steer tube. make sure you have enough stack spacers under the stem and/or top cap, otherwise the top cap will bottom out on the steer tube and you will not be able to fully tighten it.

to check for tightness, grab the interface between the fork's crown and the head tube, where that lower headset bearing is. lock the front brake with your other hand and rock the bike forward/backward. if you feel play in your first hand, then you need to tighten the top cap some more.

only tighten it enough to remove all play.

then you can retighten the stem onto the steer tube. don't overdo it here. you only need it a little bit past hand tight.

I think a torque wrench is a great idea. People kill a lot of perfectly good carbon handlebars overtorquing stem faceplates and bar ends. We've developed a technology that can quantify "a little bit past hand tight" so that others can replicate it. Hundreds of dollars worth of high-end, compression-sensitive equipment seems like a great place to use that technology.

You may find you don't need one after you've been wrenching on bikes for a while, but they're pretty cheap and great to have around when something has a really weird torque setting or a very narrow range of acceptable torques.

Thanks for the help...Should be back to riding as soon as I get off this work week and have time to adjust it...

Make sure you tighten that handlebar clamp equally on the top and bottom bolts. Ritchey sells a product called the torque key (http://www.google.com/products?q=ritchey+torque+key&aq=0&oq=ritchey+t) It's preset to 5Nm with a 4mm allen head. Perfect for carbon bars and stems!

sanjuro said:

It is not the tightness of your bolts (unless you really mucked it up).

The stem has to be slightly above the steerer so the top cap can pull down on the stem.

Put more spaces either below or above the stem, depending on your bar height.

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Thanks everyone, I picked up some more spacers at the LBS and installed and everything is great....I think i prematurely freaked out...LOL