Bob Ross

Wife's brand new bike arrived today. It has a Chris King Sotto Voce No-threadset, and an Easton SL-something fork. When I unpacked it from the shipping container -- and fwiw it appeared to be packed extremely well -- I noticed the top portion of the headset (the part that the spacers rest upon) was sitting about an inch above the top headtube bearing race (or whatever-the-heck the other part of that King headset that presumably mates with this is called). See pic:



That baby is on there pretty tight. I'm no mechanic, but it seems like it's stuck. Definitely would take an inordinate amount of force to get this to slide down the steerer tube to sit on top of its mate.

But since this is only the second time in my life that I've assembled a threadless stem & King headset, I'm more than willing to believe that I'm simply overlooking something obvious that's supposed to get done to this.

Stem obviously doesn't fit on the steerer tube with this piece up in this elevated position.

Any ideas? My wife wants to ride her new bike!

Thanks.

operator

There is no picture.

StanSeven

Can't see the pic. Did dyou load it properly?

operator

I see it now.

I don't see any reason why that ring doesn't go down.

OP: Try lifting everything off and examine the steerer for damage/bent. Then reassemble, one by one.

Bob Ross

Try now. (Stupid imageshack!)

reptilezs

push it down, they are tight

jtelford

Did you put grease on the o-ring?
There's an o-ring inside the collar (the tall part that doesn't move) and that rubber-on-metal steering tube is very tight. If you removed the o-ring it would fall down easily. That's what I have done to mine for the moment as I test-fit up a stem.

Perhaps wipe some light grease around the steering tube, as far up as possible, and all the way down to where that collar will sit. Mash it down hard and as soon as the o-ring contacts the grease, it should move much more easily.


[edit] 1 1/4 schedule 40 PVC (standard) should just fit around the steer tube and you can use it as a drift. Not sure of the right word here- a drift is a pin punch, use the pvc pipe more like a seal driver or bushing tool- still bang on it with a hammer if necessary.

fietsbob

Crown race setters are a tube like you describe.
the PVC stuff should be strong enough to persuade that piece , downward ..

though you could shine up the steerer tube and take a thousandth off, and make it slicker too .

Dave A 

Agreed.....if you can. This is one of the problems with King Headsets and their 0-ring design. If the steerer is even slightly oversized you can't get the cap on without some modifications. If the steerer is a little undersized, the fit is too loose. Fortunately, now that the Cane Creek (or whom ever had it) patent has expired, King is now offering a wedge style conversion kit, which is a lot better design and is how I would fix this (assuming it does turn out to be an oversized steerer problem, rather than a dry o-ring or etc). See here: https://www.aspirevelotech.com/Mercha...t_Code=PHS710B

Dave

jtelford

Good info for me to know, since I am putting together my bike using one of these.
Thanks Dave!
Jason

Al1943

Don't use much force to slide it down. You may need to clean up the steer tube with some sand fine paper.

fietsbob

Sand paper is for wood, Garnet grit.. For steel, you want Carborundum grit paper , instead.
wet or dry paper backing or cloth.

Al1943

I think of wet or dry carborundum as "sand paper". I'm old school.