freegeek

As the title says, I'm in the process of building up a new bike. The frame came with a hope headset. The cups were already installed on the frame. Without the steerer tube the upper tapered ring is flush inside the upper bearing. When I put the steerer tube in this upper tapered ring comes out of the upper bearing and I can not get it back in by just using my hands. Should this tapered ring be flush inside the bearing and should I just use a hammer to put it in?

dsaul

The tapered ring should not be flush with the top of the bearing. It works as a compression ring to take up any space between the steerer tube and the bearing. When you tighten the top cap, it presses the stem(and spacers) against it and forces the taper down to make a tight connection between the steerer and the bearing. If it were already flush, there would be no way to press it down any further to tighten the connection. The reason it doesn't sit flush with the steerer installed, is that the ring has a split in it and placing it on the steerer expands it slightly.

freegeek

Thanks, makes sense now like you described it. I did not see the whole picture because without the top cap you just have a wobbly steerer tube.