corwin1968

I put together my 1" quill stem bike and everything feels normal except for the fact that I can stand in front of the bike, hold the front wheel between my knees, and turn the handlebar slightly left or right. It isn't loose, it takes some effort to do it. Is this normal? It will not move up and down when tightened. I've never tried this on other quill stem bikes so maybe they were that way as well, but I don't know.

I first installed the quill stem with a large torque wrench, which is why I'm concerned I could have damaged the steerer. I don't think I tightened it that tight but I'm not sure I didn't. I took the fork off the bike and the steerer tube looks completely normal. Nothing is apparently amiss on the outside. No cracks, no bulges. Most of the steerer is threaded so the quill is binding up against a threaded section, no matter high high or low I place it. I couldn't find an online photo of what a bulged steerer tube looks like. Plenty of broken ones but not just bulged.

SkyDog75

If you've got a properly-sized stem for the fork's steerer tube, the stem and fork are in good shape, and you're not doing something silly like installing a quill stem in a carbon fiber steerer tube, then you should be able to secure the stem so it's awfully tough to rotate the handlebars.

dsbrantjr

Make certain that you do not have the wedge down in the tapered butted section of the steerer; it is not safe or secure and is liable to come loose without warning. Hands Up (Or Down)! Adjusting Handlebar Stem Height on Your Bicycle

Having said that, I set up brake and shift lever clamps so that they can be rotated with some effort but not move during normal use. This is termed "race tight" and is done to help minimize injury in a crash. But I would never want a stem or bars to move.

AnkleWork

OK, how tight? To what value of torque did you tighten the stem?

cpach

My experience is that it often requires an awful lot of torque--like the most I can reasonably generate. I've taken to installing quill stems with carbon assembly paste, which seems to lower the necessary tightening torque to secure stem reasonably.

It's fine if you can get it to move when you really ape on it--as mentioned, this actually can help protect things in a crash.

corwin1968

It was a large beam torque wrench and I'm not even sure the gauge moved. It was just too tight to comfortably undo with an "L" hex wrench that is maybe 4" long.

The head tube is quite long, probably approaching 6" and with the spacers on top of the steerer tube, I probably have 2-3" inserted into the steerer tube. The quill is a long way from the bottom of the head tube.

It is now tight enough that moving the stem side-to-side takes considerable force. I've been reluctant to tighten it too much with my "L" hex wrench for fear of damaging it. I doubt my torque wrench has fine enough gradations to use but I'll double check to make sure.

ETA: I checked Park Tools torque specs and found a conservative value of 20-22 NM, which I can get close to on my wrench. I went slowly and stopped just short of 20 NM (I'm overly cautious now) and the same amount of force on the handlebar will no longer move them. I felt like like I could have moved them but I would have had to crank pretty hard, more than is comfortable. I think it's good enough, probably tighter than I ever got it with my little "L" wrench.

I'm feeling pretty good about this now and I should have just checked the torque values and my wrench instead of assuming my wrench had too broad a range.

FBinNY 

There's no need for the stem to be so tight that it can't move. Steering forces when riding are tiny, so even stems that seem loose in the hold the wheel/twist the bars test are still tight enough.

There's a usable range, with many including myself keeping them only "race tight" so they bars will twist in a tough crash, possibly saving the fork or front wheel.

My test is to hold the wheel and twist the bars, If the fork flexes considerably before the bar slips it's more than tight enough.

Another consideration is convenience. You want the bar to be tight enough to stay put through a bit of rough handling. You don't want to be checking or straightening it every time the bike falls or gets a bump here and there.

So, ride the bike, and if it stays put it's fine.