Handle bar alignment

[fattony]

Hi

had the bike out at the weekend and noticed when the wheel is straight the handle bar isn’t, it’s not a million miles out but enough to notice.

ive experienced this before with the Kids bikes and by putting feet either side of the wheel you can move the handle bars back into alignment, but mine would not move and I didn’t want to force it.

The bike is a 2014 Boardman cyclocross, hopefully I’ve explained it well enough, terminology is my weak point.

Any ideas on what I need to do to re align it?

thanks

 

[Sharky]

Presume it's not a quill stem. So just loosen the two clamp bolts, straighten and re tighten.

Check there is no play in the headset by aplying the front brake and rocking the bike backwards and forwards. If you can feel play. Then loosen the two clamp bolts. Give the top bolt a tiny tighten and re tighten the clamp bolts. Check again.

 

[fattony]

There are spacers and Allen bolts, I wasn’t sure if I had to loosen them, will give it a try once I have a torque set!

thanks

 

[figbat]

You’ll only need to undo them a little - the two Allen bolts on the back of the stem. No need to take them out or get them really loose. Good practice to do each one little at a time and check the torque - often only around 5 Nm or so.