Bottom Bracket Selection Guide
BBInfinite TECH TIP: Adjust a Headset Like a Boss
Applying the proper amount of preload to the headset bearings while getting all the logos aligned with the stem while getting the stem perfectly straight over the wheel can try a person's soul. In this video we will show you how to keep a simple adjustment from turning into an infuriating, soul crushing event.
Let's talk about headset adjustment- come on in here and see just how bad this sucker is. This just came in the door I think you guys can probably see that movement okay we know how to solve that right what we need to do is this stem these pinch bolts need to be loosened and the stem needs to be able to slide down onto the steer tube to effectively bring everything together and put that preload back on these angular contact headset bearings. Now - that entails loosening up these screws and I know you guys - the minute you do that the stem is going to want to go crooked on you and it's never any fun trying to get a stem lined up straight with a wheel when you're riding down the road and you look down and it looks crooked and it's very mind-numbing. If you've got it straight, we don't want to screw that up. So the way to get around this before you loosen these two up do not do that the first thing you want to do is over tighten the cap and I mean over tighten it just a little bit just like that significantly over tightening and then you come in and you loosen these up the reason we're doing that is because when this is over tightened and we loosen these and it begins to slide it's going to want to compress down all right we might have to do this in a couple of steps because of how loose this is but I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to loosen this screw up here and I'm going to loosen this one up just like that and now I'm going to re-tighten them because I actually brought it down just a little bit brought it back together and now I want to come back here and I'm going to over tighten this again you see now I see how it's all of a sudden loose where it was really tight before and now I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to loosen this up just like this and like this and then I'm going to tighten them back up. Just snug them down- and a good indication that I'm getting where I want to go is I can tell already that the play is mostly gone and a good indication that your headset is probably- has the proper amount of preload on it or at least not under is whether or not this cap moves the top cap. If you've actually got low torque look at see how I can move it see how I can move it I'm grabbing it and then I'm turning so I grab it and I turn so what I want to do is I actually want to bring those logos because it's got a logo on both sides I want to bring those logos in so that when I'm looking down it's nice and straight because this is those kind of pro moves that we like to do. So now that I've got this lined up, I want to go in here and I'm going to tighten this again right- and then I'm going to do the same process once again this one's very loose usually only have to do this once but I like to show you guys some extreme cases so you can see just how effective these maneuvers can be. Alright, now I'm going to go ahead and feel it to make sure that it doesn't feel like rocks because if it feels really rough or it's tight like, you go to turn the handlebar and it doesn't move it doesn't want to settle back, you've got too much preload on it and you need to back it off alright so and then I'm going to use my 5Nm breakaway to go ahead and put final torque on these little fasteners right here so that's the minute it gets to the 5Nm it will break away very handy all right take some guesswork out of it now I've got it I've got my headset set up properly now so you guys understand what I did, I tightened it at the top so that it would want to compress and then I loosened the pinch bolts and then it slid, then I tightened the pinch bolts this way the relationship between the wheel and the center line of the stem never changes and I don't have to screw with that once again usually you can do that whole thing in one step one more thing I want to show you guys if you come in here and take a look we want to make sure that logos on things are aligned all right so you see how that's aligned right now that's great but I want to show you guys this real quick let's just say that that was misaligned alright, so I'm going to go ahead and by the way this is with once the stem is tight this wouldn't even need to be in there I mean it does for safety reasons but what I mean right now is this is not moving anything I mean it's still torqued I mean it's still the preload is still set this this right here I just pull that sucker out so let's just say it was out of alignment your logo you can after this is all torqued down you can come back and pull this out and then stick it in there and tighten it back up kind of in rough position like that so you can come in and give it a little tightening right there and then get it perfectly lined up so the logos are lined up and that is how you adjust a headset like a boss
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