Raleigh Centros Headset Adjustment ?

[iRider]

Hi Guys,

I have a 2020 Raleigh Centros Grand Tour. It was delivered with a loose headset which should have been sorted on PDI but we are where we are..

I am happy to pick up the tool(s) required via Amazon and do it myself but I have not seen this setup before. My past bikes had a bolt down the centre, this one doesn't. See Picture attached.

So how exactly do I adjust it?

[PT1029]

If your old bikes had a "bolt down the centre", they would be the older style quill stem/threaded headset,
Yours looks more like an A head threadless headset design - this should have a (smaller) bolt going a (short distance only) down the centre (used to adjust the bearings) - but yours doesn't have this bolt obviously to view (if at all) - see top view of the headset here :-
https://www.raleigh.co.uk/24992-centros ... r-crossbar (see photo 4 of 8 ).
In your picture lurking in the gap between the frame and the stem is a shiney straight edge reflecting light (spanner flat on a headset lock nut?). It could be the headset is actually a threaded headset, and you loosen the 2 small stem clamp bolts on the stem so you can raise the stem to expose the spanner flats used to adjust the headset.
I have seen threaded headsets covered up a bit like this before, but only with quill stems, not the A head clamp style stem you have.
I have never seen one like this in the flesh, so am hypothisising.

[Brucey]

Hi Guys,

I have a 2020 Raleigh Centros Grand Tour. It was delivered with a loose headset....

that is the problem with time travel; knackers your headset every time, so I'm told.

If mail order bikes are delivered faulty then there should be a means of getting the thing corrected with the assistance of the vendor. The bike should have come with an owner's manual that tells you how to make basic adjustments. Most likely you have some variation on an A-head headset (other Motus/Centros models use the same fork and are so equipped) but you never know for sure until the thing is in bits.

Whatever type of headset it is, it will (IME) be possible to ruin it by going about adjusting it in the wrong way; my belief (based on seeing countless failed headsets) is that bad adjustment is the most likely cause of headset failure, followed by corrosion, with genuine wear alone (i.e. with no contribution from corrosion or bad adjustment) coming a distant last place.

In the broadest terms you have three choices;

1) get the vendor to fix it if it was delivered faulty
2) take it to the LBS and get them to fix it
3) fix it yourself.

The last of these options is the quickest and easiest but only if you have the tools and skills required. Tools don't come that expensive but if you don't have the skills you could break the bike and/or render it unsafe to ride. If you want to be reasonably safe with parts that you are not familiar with then you should think about getting a torque wrench and then using it in accordance with the specifications for the parts in question.

BTW with a disc-brake equipped bike which has suspension forks, it is easy to suppose that the headset is loose because both the forks and the brake may allow a little fore-aft movement when tested in the usual way for normal bikes (i.e. the brake is held on lightly and the bike rocked back and forth). If in any doubt, get a second opinion.

cheers

[iRider]

Thanks Bruce’s, a comprehensive POV but your over thinking the question. Like I said, it is the model released 2 days ago and marketed as the 2020 model, not corroded, worn, badly adjusted or broken. It has just not been setup before being sent out. I am not sending it back to have something adjusted that I can do once I know the correct procedure, after all it will need doing throughout the life of the bike so may as we’ll learn now.

Just asking for someone who has seen such a setup to give me some advice on that procedure. Raleigh will do that eventually but that’s the point of groups like this, sharing knowledge.

[Brucey]

some headsets will go out of adjustment when the handlebars are adjusted in any way (including simply being turned straight). If you don't understand how your headset works you may have put it out of adjustment.

Please read what I wrote more carefully; I of course wasn't suggesting that your headset was corroded, just pointing out that bad adjustment kills more headsets than anything else does, and bad adjustment is the exclusive province of folk who don't know what they are doing. In the worst case folk don't even know that they don't know what they are doing. A-head headsets are particularly easy to ruin because there are identical-looking bolts that have wildly (by a factor of about ten) differing torque requirements.


This https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/headset-standards may help you to identify what kind of headset you have. I'd expect it to be a variant of threadless setup, but that isn't certain. There are also videos on that site which explain how various different styles of stem are dealt with.

It is impossible to give you good advice (beyond "take it to bits and have a look at it") until the true nature of the parts is established . It is also impossible to give you clear instructions unless your level of technical competence is known; that you are asking this question tells its own story.

cheers

[iRider]

I will wait for someone who can answer the simple question.

[Brucey]

I (and many others on here) could give you chapter and verse on how to adjust any headset once it has been identified. Whether you would be able to act upon that advice however is completely unknown.

Ignorance is no crime but being objectionable with it seriously reduces your chances of having others help to alleviate that condition.

[Brucey]

if you can't provide a better photo or take more of it apart than that you should (for all kinds of reasons) definitely take it to a LBS. However they may tell you to 'go away' in fairly blunt Anglo Saxon.

[PT1029]

To be fair to Brucey, I don't think he's particularly having a go at you personally.
I used to teach cycle maintenance courses, and wrote detailed instructions on how to do various adjustments. People's mechanical skills vary enormously.
Some people I've taught have a vague idea how to do something, and they just need a nudge in the right direction. So "loosen the stem clamp bolts and loosen/tighten the top cap bolt the re-tighten the stem bolts" might be almost enough to get them to adjust an A headset more or less on their own.
On the other hand, I did have a person who literally had to be shown how to use a spanner (I don't mean which way to turn it, but how to place which bit of the spanner on a nut) - the above A head adjustment instructions would have been completely lost on this individual.
As you can see, instructions given by neccesity can be dependant on the skill level of the student/recipient.

The get some useful advice from this forum, 2 best options :-
1. Wait until some one familiar with your design/model of headset comes along with the answer about how to adjust it.
2. If you could undo the 2 small camp bolts in the centre/front of your photo, see if you can the wiggle/pull up the handle bars/stem up wards and take another photo, it may well reveal more of the fixings/threads or what ever is there (a bit more light would help too!). With more to look at, some one on here might be able to offer more certain advice.
If the handle bars are reluctant to twist/wiggle up I wouldn't force it. Putting the front wheel between your knees will help (holds forks still/keeps the bike up right while you wiggle the handle bars).
If you re-clamp the handle bars, the bolts are small screwing into an aluminium tread, so care needs to be taken to not over tighten or strip the aluminium threads,

[iRider]

The get some useful advice from this forum, 2 best options :-
1. Wait until some one familiar with your design/model of headset comes along with the answer about how to adjust it.

2. If you could undo the 2 small camp bolts in the centre/front of your photo, see if you can the wiggle/pull up the handle bars/stem up wards and take another photo, it may well reveal more of the fixings/threads or what ever is there (a bit more light would help too!). With more to look at, some one on here might be able to offer more certain advice.
If the handle bars are reluctant to twist/wiggle up I wouldn't force it. Putting the front wheel between your knees will help (holds forks still/keeps the bike up right while you wiggle the handle bars).
If you re-clamp the handle bars, the bolts are small screwing into an aluminium tread, so care needs to be taken to not over tighten or strip the aluminium threads,

I totally agree with suggestion (1), I twice said that I will wait for someone who actually knows this setup to comment.

Slackening the 2 bolts and sliding the clamp assembly up the stem, which can be done very easily, doesn’t reveal any more of the large nut as it’s threaded into the clamp assembly itself.

The large nut is actually a split nut, that is to say, it looks like any other hex nut but it has a slot about 3mm wide cut into one of its hexagon faces. This is clearly to allow the clamp to tighten around it but still allow some movement of the nut.

I’m 90% certain that it’s a case of ;

1; Slacken clamp bolts
2; Screw the nut fully into the clamp
3; Align bars with the wheel
4; Tighten bolts on Clamp to required torque
5; Unscrew nut from clamp to apply compression against headset as required.

The question is, should the nut be adjusted at 5 above with both clamp bolts torqued up or just the top one torqued up? Obviously if one or both are not tight then the clamp assembly will simply slide up the stem and apply no downward pressure on the headset.

As I’m only 90 % sure I don’t want to do it and have the 10% uncertainty come back and bite me in the backside.

[iRider]

Well it took Raleigh over a week to get the answer, but for anyone wanting to know, the process s as follows.

Screw 36mm nut fully into clamp assembly
Align handlebars
Apply light downward pressure on centre of handlebars
Tighten top clamp bolt ONLY to 6-8Nm
Lift collar to expose 36mm nut
Unscrew 36mm nut to apply correct downward pressure to headset
Tighten bottom clamp bolt to 6-8Nm

[Brucey]

it sounds like you have something like this + a threadless headset