I’ve been waiting for a cooler day to get back to the Workshop in the Sky and put the finishing touches on the Forking dynamite project. Well, cooler days are not in the offing yet, and meanwhile I have an event coming up in early October. So I braved the heat for a quick go at fixing the slack in the new headset.
I thought I might get some progress if I add an additional spacer, the slimmest one I have on hand. It didn’t take long to get the stem off, place the spacer, line things up again and tighten it all down.
With the first attempt I didn’t notice any difference. I did notice as I held the front brake and rocked the bike back and forth that the front tire was very low. I quickly pumped that back up and gave the headset another test: no, the low tire hadn’t been making the difference. The fork is still just that bit loose in the headset.
I unbolted the stem again and gave it another try, this time concentrating on putting pressure on the stem cap as I tightened it again. The result was some improvement. There’s no apparent gap at either end of the headset, and the fork is not moving vertically in the headset. But there’s still a slight bit of play when rocking back and forth.
The stem cap — with a USB charging port — twisted slightly as I was torquing it down. I’m not worried about that for now. I’m going to have to give it another go anyhow.
Remaining bits
There are just a few things left to finish the project off:
- Really get this headset thing settled
- Bleed the front brake
- Incidentally, get the lights working
Once those are done, the bike will be rideable again. (I suppose I can ride it with the previous lights if I haven’t got the wiring sorted in time.) I may also decide I want to replace the brake pads.
When I’m satisfied with the above, I have a couple of finishing bits to crown the project:
- New handlebar tape (long overdue)
- Add a small handlebar bag
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