Movement in headset

[tuffty]

My Specialized Allez has a small amount of movement in the headset when you apply the front brake and rock the bike back and forth. This movement though appears to be down at the bottom of the head tube / top of the forks area, rather than up near the stem. Having read the Sheldon Brown pages, that appears to say that if your top cap is loose the movement will be at top of the headtube, not the bottom. I've done up my top cap pretty tightly and the movement is still there .... is the solution just to keep tightening and hope nothing breaks, or have I missed something?

 

[BimblingBee]

Did you undo the stem bolts first?

 

[tuffty]

Did you undo the stem bolts first?

Yes, undid the stem bolts, tightened up the top cap then retightened the stem bolts.

 

[accountantpete]

It's pretty strong metal in the headset - so give it another tighten.

Otherwise it may be that the bearings at the bottom have worn and need replacing.

 

[tuffty]

Right, undid stem and top cap bolts for the third time, gave everything a good jiggle and did the top cap up extra-tightly and all appears well. Many thanks.