HOW TO DEAL WITH BIKE HEADSET

The headset of one bike can be defined as the assembly that holds the forks in place inside of the headtube. It can also double up to give the rider a more smooth steering. Nonetheless, when one is riding, any bumps on the road will impact and significantly affect the headset.

What follows will explain how to and

Back the in the 90s, the headset was called A head set. While nowadays it is called headset (containing two different words). On top of the fork itself, there is the crown and the steerer comes out from a specific area of the crown. Sliding down on the steerer, one can find a crown race. Which will lead to a bearing on top of it. Which is machined inside the specially machined head tube. As for the upper bearing, the scenario is similar to the lower bearing one. The difference can sometimes be in the diameter of it. Because a lower bearing takes more impact, and the goal is to spread that load.

The upper bearing is somehow inversed as opposed to the lower bearing. After that one can put a cantering sleeve over the steerer of the fork which helps in keeping the bearing central. Then, a headset top cover is placed, a spacer, a stem a headset top cap and the preload bold. After adding up all those, one can compress them into place to give a smooth and jutter-free riding sensation.

Why to adjust the headset prior to biking

It is not rare to see mistakes on having a loose headset. And then grabbing a torque or key and try to adjust the preload bold hoping to quick tight the headset. However, that will not happen because the stem bolts are tight. And therefore the preload bolt is not going to do the job of compressing as the stem is not able to move. To correctly tight the headset the correct procedure is to lose the preload bolt and then the stem bold. By doing so, there is toom for adjusting and reducing the compression level to succeed in rotating the stem on the steerer.

In case one has got a tight headset, the procedure to be implemented is the reversed one. Firstly, one should lose off the preload bolt. Undo the stem bolts and followed what here above explained to tighten up the headset.

The best way to know if the headset is tight is to simply have the bike off the ground or certainly lift up the front wheel and trying to turn the handlebars. If it is stiff, it is a clear sign that the headset is too tight.

When the headset has been fixed correctly, one should ensure to fix the stem bolts according to the manufacturer torque setting. As the steerer is a very important part of the bike.