rduffy

greetings. i just bought a new stem for my bike that has a higher profile than my last stem by a little bit. so now the fork steerer is a little less than a centimeter below the cap. the cap screw still goes in pretty far but i am experiencing a little wobble in the headset that wasn't there before. all the screws are tightened to torque specs.
do i need to go back to the old stem or is there something i might be missing here?
thanks in advance

capwater

If the top of the steerer is below the top of the stem, you are fine. If the steere is taller than the stem you'll need another spacer. Go to www.parktool.com and read about headset adjustment.

Re-Cycle

I'm assuming this is a threadless setup. Its quite likely they didn't put enough tension on the top screw. Loosen the clamp bolts on the stem and tighten the top screw a tiny bit, re torque the clamp bolts and go for a ride.

rduffy

thanks re-cycle. i had tightened the stem bolts before the top screw (cap screw) so i did it the other way around and also tightened the hex bolt inside the fork where the top screw goes in so the wobble is gone now. i'm still a bit nervous about the gap between the top of the fork steerer and the headset cap, which is almost a centimeter and per the chris king website they say to go no more than 3 mm for that gap. it seems sturdy enough so i am going to see how it goes since i really don't want to go back to the old stem or have to buy a new fork. it almost seems as if the fork was for a smaller frame at sometime because i cannot understand why someone would cut it so short.

well biked

The danger is that the stem bolts aren't clamping directly around the steerer tube. What's acceptable will vary some from stem to stem, based on exactly where the stem bolts are. Is there a spacer you can remove?

Re-Cycle

Good point 'Well Biked'

Usually the rule of thumb is that you don't want the top of the steer tube lower then the center of the top stem bolt. I don't imagine you will have catastrophic failure if it is slightly bellow, but removing a thin spacer from bellow the stem may be necessary.

rduffy

yah, no spacers to remove. and the top stem bolt is slightly higher than the steerer tube. like i said it seems that either the fork was cut for a smaller frame or the person who cut it is a complete idiot. its a used bike so i don't have any recourse with a bike shop or anything. i'll just see how it goes and if it keeps loosening then i'll look to switch out the stem or the fork.

OneTinSloth

well, as you said in your first post, you bought a stem that had a higher profile than the one that was previously on it. so, my guess is that the person who cut the fork did it with the previous stem in mind, and is not an idiot. it shouldn't keep coming loose on it's own once everything is snugged down.

waffenschmidt

+1. I wouldn't ride it. Either put the old stem back on, or look for another stem with the same rise as your new one but a shorter steerer clamp profile.

I_bRAD

I find it amusing that a guy who didn't know how to adjust his headset is making commentary on the guy who cut the steer tube (to match a different stem, no less).