Originally Posted by
seinberg
Trek in my area (NYC region) stopped doing real fittings during COVID. Plus, frankly, the guys selling the bike didn't *really* seem to know what they were doing - it was a brand new shop. I rode the bike a couple miles and it seemed more or less okay, figured I could tweak things. But after having some time with the bike I got more "in tune" with the bike and realized the fit wasn't quite right. That said, there are a ton of places where I can get a true fitting - I just want to wait until it's safer.
Great info on the angles. Now that I'm looking at my road bike, that's precisely what the shop I bought that from (pre-covid) did and it fits me perfectly. I'll give that a whirl. Is there anything special I need to do to flip it, or do I just loosen a bunch of nuts and flip and re-tighten? I guess I could also bring it to a Trek shop if it's any more complicated than that or I need special tools beyond allen/torx/torque wrench
Its a couple of metric hex keys. One for the stem cap and one for the stem bolts.
Undo the 4(i assume) bolts on the handlebars and lay the bars on the wheel or something so the cables dont get all twisted.
Undo the stem cap bolt and remove the cap.
Undo the stem clamp bolts then pull the stem up.
Flip it.
Replace the stem cap bolt and tighten it to a point where there is no slop/play, but where the front wheel turns freely.
Then tighten the stem clamp bolts.
Put the handlebars back and tighten the 4 bolts. Do the bolts in an alternating cross pattern and make sure there is the same amount of space between the stem plate and stem up top as below. Basically, dont just tighten the bottom ones then the top ones because the stem plate wont have force evenly distributed. Tighten in an alternating pattern. This is especially important since the bar is carbon and even distribution of force is a lot better than uneven.
That is a lot of steps, but it isnt much once youve done it. Properly preloading the headset with the stem cap bolt is the only thing that is kinda confusing since you dont know if its good if youve never done it before. The easy way to find out is once the bike is back together, hold the brakes engaged and rock the bike back and forth on its wheels. If the headset is too loose, you will immediately feel it and just loosen the stem clamp bolts then tighten the stem cap a bit more before tightening the clamp bolts again. If its good and there is no play in the headset, then twist the bars left and right. If they are tough to twist then you overtightened the stem cap. Loosen the stem clamp bolts, slightly loosen the stem cap, then tighten the clamp bolts and twist the bars to compare.
...or take it to a shop.