Tight steering?

[Pedaldog]

On my Nomad I have the Threadless aheadset steering.
It is stiff steering the bike, noticed it whilst pushing the bugger up a particularly steep hill, and I dont know how I free it off.
Any ideas for the Idiot please[]

[luceberg]

I don't know if I can help but, a few questions:-

Has it always been stiff,or did it become stiff recently?

Is it evenly stiff however the bars are turned?

Your headset is probably a roller bearing one, which are generally a little stiffer than ball bearing ones due to the greater contact area.

A test for correct headset tightness is to tip the bike on it's side. The forks should flop easily.

My first suspicion is that the grease in your headset has dried up, in which case inverting the bike and oiling round the headset might cure it, if the oil can get past the seals, but disassembling and regreasing is the proper way to do it.

Hope that's of some help.

[hoogie]

If the headset is the FSA II, the bearings are cartridge bearings ... perhaps one of them has collapsed? How tight is your stemcap screwed down? Has any water got in there?

[Dave Whittle Thorn Workshop]

The best thing to do is to take the headset apart, here goes:-

Remove the wheel from the fork and place to one side, removing the handlebars from the stem makes the job easier too.

Now remove the top cap from the stem with a 5mm allen/hex key,

Now remove any washers and the stem, again with the 5mm allen/hex key,

The fork will no drop out and the headset will be left in the frame, if the fork does not fall out remove the top bearing cover and the gold compression ring,

You will then beable to see the cartridge bearings in the cups these should come out by hand, but you may have to prise them out (be very careful) the best way to do this is with a flat head screwdriver wrapped in a cloth.

Now try running the bearings in your hand, if the feel gritty prise up the rubber dust sheild very carefully using a stanley knife blade.

Degrease the bearings using a degreaser which is kind to seals, eg. Finishline, or Weldtite CT3

Now inject into the bearing a quality teflon grease, eg. Finishline or Weldtite TF grease.

Replace the rubber bearing sheild and put a smear of grease all over the outside of the bearings and re-inset into the frame cups.

Re-install the fork, remembering all the spacers the stem and the top cap.

Tighten the top cap until the headset is tight but the steerer still rotates, then back off a 1/4 of a turn.

Re-install the wheel and handlebars and re-check the headset tention after droping the front of the bike on the floor 2 or 3 times from a height of about 1 foot.

Hope this helps, if you get stuck you can e-mail me dave@sjscycles.com

[Pedaldog]

Thanks people.
The bars were stiff from Day 1 but I never really thought it a problem until somebody else mentioned it to me the other day. It is even across the turn for tension and it really does need to be manually turned when the bike is on its side.
I'll get somebody that knows their ar*e from their elbow to follow the instructions Dave, thanks again,

[Pedaldog]

DOH!!!!!


Sorted it and I am embarassed!
All to do with a brake cable hanger having a screw on it and I didnt notice it.
I AM A KLUTZ!