Raising height of bars

[Kestevan]

The cap acts as a preload to take the play out of the bearings in the headset. In order to do this it has to "pull" the steerer up tight. The cap has to sit slightly above the sterrer tube itself. It can rest on either the stem (or more usually) a spacer. The basic rule is that there should be a couple of mm more spacer/stem length than steerer above the top of the head-tube.

Having said that... it is possible to fit the stem without the using the top-cap to take out the play in the headset, You basically have to manually force the headset together whilst tightening the stem bolts. It's bloody difficult to do as you can't easily judge the amount of pressure required - and you need at least three hands..... but it is "possible".... but I suspect that you'd be likely to over/under tighten and seriously reduce the lifespan of the headset,

 

[livpoksoc]

You need a spacer above that stem. The top cap must not sit on top of the steerer, it needs to rest on the stem before pre-load or in your case on a spacer on top of the stem.

The cap acts as a preload to take the play out of the bearings in the headset. In order to do this it has to "pull" the steerer up tight. The cap has to sit slightly above the sterrer tube itself. It can rest on either the stem (or more usually) a spacer. The basic rule is that there should be a couple of mm more spacer/stem length than steerer above the top of the head-tube.

Having said that... it is possible to fit the stem without the using the top-cap to take out the play in the headset, You basically have to manually force the headset together whilst tightening the stem bolts. It's bloody difficult to do as you can't easily judge the amount of pressure required - and you need at least three hands..... but it is "possible".... but I suspect that you'd be likely to over/under tighten and seriously reduce the lifespan of the headset,

Er ok, so I am a bit confused because before I took the stem off, it had no spacers before the cap on the tube. Would I be better off just flipping it back?

I don't have a gauge wrench to judge how much to tighten these bolts, but what i was hoping would be a quick fix is causing me concern as to whether I should take the bike out or take it to my lbs.

Am I right in thinking if I loosen the two bolts on the side (at the rear) of the stem off & the top cap, redo up the top cap bolt then straighten the stem and do up the sode ones ahain I should be ok?

I don't want to end up shortening the life of my components just mucking about with two allen keys when I thought it would be a simple remedy.

 

[RebornBumbler]

This shows you all you need to know:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LTCthtmjD0


In particular, take note at around 2 minutes in and again at around 2 mins 54 seconds in, where it's explained how to position the spacer or (your situation) stem such that you can preload the bearings with the cap bolt- as @Kestevan was saying.

 

[livpoksoc]

This shows you all you need to know:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LTCthtmjD0


In particular, take note at around 2 minutes in and again at around 2 mins 54 seconds in, where it's explained how to position the spacer or (your situation) stem such that you can preload the bearings with the cap bolt- as @Kestevan was saying.

Thank you! Was going through gcn vids and they're good, but not thorough enough for my brain to want to understand what it is I'm messing with.

 

[RebornBumbler]

No problem - it goes on a bit, but he's gone to the effort of doing his own diagram and everything

In short, if you haven't got a few mm between where the cap sits and the top of the steerer tube, you need to either add a spacer or cut a bit off the end of the steerer tube so that you have.