Loose steering

[HongKongphooey]

Hi, relative newbie here so do forgive my ignorance.

I have a mountian bike, a year or so old. I used to have racing bikes beforehand and have ridden other mountian bikes, so am used to the feel of them.

The problem with my bike is the stering/handlebars are loose.

What I mean by that is (and I know this isn't a sensible thing to do but it is a good way of describing the problem) if you let go of the handlebars the wheel and handlebars feel "light" and wobble.

With previous bikes there was a certain amount of stiffness so that you could ride without touching the handlebars and you would still go in a straight line.

With my bike you won't, the weheel and handlebars wobble and AAARRGHH!!

To explain further, with my old racing bike I could push it (when walking) by holding the saddle and the bike would go straight unless I steered it in a particular direction.

With my (newish) bike you cannot push it when walking unless you hold the handlebar as the front wheel just wobbles and turns.

The wobble is not a "wobble" as such, i.e. the ride is totally smooth.

What I want to know is how do I stiffen it up, not so tight that you cant turn the handlebars, but what do I adjust?

Is it the bolt at the top of the handlbars or is it the headset nut?

Thanks

 

[domtyler]

Hi HKP, with the front brake engaged what does it feel like if you rock the bike back and forth?

If you can feel it knocking about then you need to tighten your headset.

 

[barq]

I think Dom is almost certainly right. A year old mountain bike will have a threadless headset which is tightened by slacking off the bolts that clamp the stem to steerer, tightening the bolt in the top cap, and then re-tightening the stem bolts.

 

[HongKongphooey]

When I pull the brakes on and rock it there is no knocking.

The bike itself is a model about 3 years old, although a year on the road, so to speak.

I am a newbie though so don't understand this bit too well
"a threadless headset which is tightened by slacking off the bolts that clamp the stem to steerer, tightening the bolt in the top cap, and then re-tightening the stem bolts"

What is that in layman's terms? lol

 

[spandex]

Hi HKP welcome to CC

what barg was meaning is

1) You have your Handle bars and there is the Stem which is bolted to the Handle bars and the what looks like the Frame of the bike. Its on the frame side you need to be looking.

2) On the frame side of the stem there is three bolts one on top and two on the side. If there is no knocking when you put on the front brake all you need to do is do up the two bolts on the side do them finger tight then one full turn.

now see how that fills?

 

[HongKongphooey]

Thanks for your help - I will go home and try it out!

 

[Globalti]

You should be able to ride no-handed at reasonable speeds on a flat surface, the caster of the front wheel makes this possible. If the bike veers off, there's something wrong.

If you think the steering is loose, do as described above, loosen those two pinch bolts on the stem then gradually tighten the bolt in the top. This will load up the bearings. Retighten the pinch bolts and test for play by rocking the bike back and forth against the front brake. Wrap a couple of fingers around the bearing at the bottom of the frame head tube to feel if there's any movement. If the bearings are too tight the steering will be stiff and the bike will feel horrible to ride. It's quite a subtle adjustment, you may only need a few degrees of turn on that Allen key to get the bearings loaded correctly. Always retighten the two pinch bolts though before testing for play.

 

[fossyant]

You should be able to ride no-handed at reasonable speeds on a flat surface, the caster of the front wheel makes this possible. If the bike veers off, there's something wrong

There is something wrong - the rider is rubbish at no hands like me !

 

[Archie]

It sounds like it's just the geometry of the frameset that's the issue here. With the MTB it's likely to have a more upright head tube than the road bike. Result: the road bike steers itself, whilst the MTB is more "twitchy" so the rider has to steer instead of leaving it to the bike.

If that's the case there's not much you can do to fix the problem, it's just a characteristic of the bike.

 

[mickle]

It sounds like it's just the geometry of the frameset that's the issue here. With the MTB it's likely to have a more upright head tube than the road bike. Result: the road bike steers itself, whilst the MTB is more "twitchy" so the rider has to steer instead of leaving it to the bike.

If that's the case there's not much you can do to fix the problem, it's just a characteristic of the bike.

Not Really, any and every bike should be capable of being ridden hands off. If not there's something wrong with the head bearings or the frame alignment. Unless it's a recumbrent. They has different rules.