Originally Posted by
GravelMN
Title says it. I have an older steel bike with a 1" threaded steerer. It seems like every time I take it on gravel or even rough road, the headset gets loose. It's a nearly new sealed bearing headset so it isn't a wear issue. Is there any reason not to use a drop of regular Lock Tite on the threads under the lock nut to keep the headset from loosening up?
Thanks
Lock-tite won't hurt but it won't help either. More below.
It should not be necessary if you are tightening the headset lock ring properly. The problem suggests you're doing something wrong. Maybe the steerer is a bit too long for the headset? But a very small amount of blue (lower strength, removable) Locktite won't hurt. A whole bunch of red (high strength, permanent) Locktite would be a bad idea. Other brands of thread locker may use different color codes.
This isn't true. You can properly tighten a threaded headset to the point of pulling the threads off the fork and it probably won't hold when used off-road. There was a cottage industry back before the advent of threadless headsets making and selling headset locking devices. BikePro is a defunct mail order catalog site that is preserved in Interwebs amber that
lists a couple of examples.
These guys still sell the Gorilla Headlocks. The Headlock is just a fancy shaft lock.
Back in the bad old days, even the best adjusted headset on a mountain bike was almost guaranteed to loosen on an off-road ride. I have replaced many threaded headset that were pounded into oblivion by off-road use and have no love for the damned things. Threadless is far superior.
The reason that the headset won't stay tight is the very nature of the part. You have to have the race loose enough that it will turn and you jam the lock nut onto the race to keep it from moving. However under the pounding that the bike undergoes in off-road situations, the lower race can move relative to the lock nut. Once it moves even a little, the lock nut is no longer "locked" and the headset loosens. A thread locking compound won't help much because the race could still move relative to the locknut.