Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
It's not complicated but there's more to it than four bolts like the other posters have hinted.
Make sure the bike is stnding on the floor. Remove the handlebar. Completely remove the vertical bolt at the top. Loosen the bolts that clamp the stem to the fork and flip it over. DON'T TIGHTEN THE CLAMP BOLTS YET. Reinstall the handlebar.
Now comes the important part. Reinstall the vertical bolt. It's degree of tightness is very important. It has to be tight enough that when you put on the front brake and rock the bike forward you don't feel a "click", yet loose enough that the wheel will still flop side-to-side when you tip the bike. That's not hard to do, I think that's why the other posters overlooked it, but it's real, real important.
Finally, align your handlebars with the front wheel and retighten the stem clamp bolts.
It was the vertical bolt that was concerning me the most, I figured the other bolts would be easy enough to fiddle with. Thanks for the detail. Thanks also for your other post, the issues with the rear derailleur and the brake disc weren't things I'd considered. As soon as swapping wheels got more complex than wheel-out-wheel-in then it would start to make sense to just keep more road-friendly tyres and swap them when I needed to.
As it happens I rode a friend home last night so she didn't have to cycle in the dark on her own, and on my way back home after dropping her off I got to thinking I probably also need to focus on the engine that drives the bike. I'm a lot fitter than I was two years ago but there's still room for improvement there too.