newroadie

I recently acquired an old (early 80s?) road bike with Campy components. I noticed that I feel a "notch" in the headset when the stem is facing forward. In other words, the bars/stem/fork will stop turning and rest in the forward position if you push them lightly.

Is this normal? I've certainly never seen this on any other bikes, but my experience is limited. I would think it was a malfunction, but it leaves the stem facing straight forward. Hope my explanation is alright; let me know if clarification is needed.

Thanks

ultraman6970

THe Headset it is too tight? Take that thing appart and put new grease to it. Re-tight... done.

Ex Pres 

Sounds like you're getting a little 'indexing' in the headset caused by wear. New grease, balls and removal of any retaining rings can help, as might turning the races and/or cups 90 degrees. You really need to disassemble to confirm any causes. Look for wear on the races, a broken retainer, balls out of round, etc.

newroadie

I'll get it looked at soon, but in the meantime will it be alright to ride?

OLDYELLR

Try loosening the adjustment off by about 1 flat and see how that feels. One day I noticed the same symptom in mine after I'd removed the wheel and the fork had less inertia. I ordered a new headset and while I was waiting for it, I tried the above and the "notch" disappeared.

Mr. Underbridge

I had the same thing on my old beater recently. As mentioned above, it's fretting or indexing. It's not dangerous unless the notching is severe or you tighten the headset so much that the notching actually throws off your handling, but it doesn't sound like that's the case.

Loosening does help, but I'd go ahead and try re-packing the bearings. When it happened to mine, I took the headset apart, cleaned the heck out of all the surfaces, and took the bearings out of the retainer. Then I lubed everything, put the bearings back in, and away I went. Headset is a lot smoother (if still not perfect). I was thinking of getting a new headset but re-packing the bearings was good enough, and if I replaced everything on that bike that wasn't perfectly smooth...well, I'd have built a new bike.

I'm betting the bearing retainers have a significant role in indexing because the bearings probably don't move around as much as they would if they were loose, so repeated impact jams the bearings against the cups in the same spot.

ultraman6970

Nothing it going to happen... But at some point u have to get that thing lose a little bit, thats all.

cya

Soil_Sampler

possible brinell damage or fretting corrosion.

OLDYELLR

Another trick is to remove the lower cup or crown race and reposition it 90°. However, don't mess with it if you don't have the tools and haven't done this before. Yet another trick is to remove the caged balls and replace them with more loose ones.

Retro Grouch 

What are you trying to accomplish?

There are a lot of "make do" tricks to extend the life of your headset for a few more miles. If you want to really fix the bike, the answer is to replace the headset.

Oh - one poster suggested loosening the headset a bit wouldn't have any negative outcomes. Bad, bad, bad advice. A too loose headset can cause your bike's head tube to ovalize every time that you use the front brake. An ovalized head tube will have you replacing the frame rather than just the headset.

HillRider

The notching isn't "normal", it's a sign that the lower cup and/or crown race are damaged. The bearing balls have created pockets in the race and the "notching" you feel is the balls trying to climb out of the depression.

You can get a little more use out of the headset if the lower balls are in a retainer by disgarding the retainer and replacing the balls with a larger number of them. That way the pockets and ball centers don't line up. This is a TEMPORARY fix. The proper method, as RG suggests, is to replace the headset.