Cycling UK Forum

Acquired a late nineties Marin MTB for my son. Fiddling with seat vs handlebars, relative heights.

I need to raise the handlebars, which were set really low. So, I undid the 6mm hex bolt in the usual way three or four turns. The whole bolt lifted out (?). Some wiggling and I was able to raise the bars by maybe 7-8mm at most, certainly less than a centimetre.

Put bolt back in, and there’s nothing there that I can feel to actually screw it back into to secure everything again! I put the handlebars back down to where they started, and there’s still nothing I can feel into which to screw the bolt…

I’ve never had a problem like this before - raising or lowering handlebars is something that “just works”.

Any suggestions on what I’m missing, please?

Could you pull the bars out, hold them aligned alongside the relevant bit of the bike and show us a photo?

Jonathan

marquis26 wrote: ↑21 Aug 2021, 4:51pmAny suggestions on what I’m missing, please?

The expander bolt , although I'm sure it can only have dropped down the steerer tube.

If you can get the bars out you can look down the steerer to see what's happened, if you can't then you'll need to drop the front wheel out, remove any mudguard or reflector bracket bolt and look up the steerer tube.

In terms of wiggling and only being able to raise the bars 7-8mm has the cabling been optimised for the current height of the bars? That could certainly make them reluctant to rise.

As jdsk said, pics please.

Turn the bike upside down and <gently> using a long screwdriver etc knock the expander bolt nut back out through the top of the fork steerer. Clean up with wire wool and reassemble using moly grease. Job done!

Thanks for all your suggestions, people

Assuming that it stops raining, I’ll have a go at it tomorrow and report back.

(On cable length, the bike has centre pull cantis so I already know I’ve got a bit more work…).

Those old MTBs can be excellent runabouts.
It's fortunate that you've discovered that the expander bolt has dropped, sudden loss of steering is not pleasant!
You're also fortunate that the bars can be moved, often they're corroded irretrievably into place .

Sometimes the expander wedge can get corroded and fused into the steel steering tube and can mean it takes a lot of drifting/rust remover/penetrating oil to free.

If it is not loose rattling around, then I would stop down the fork enough to hold it upside down resting on a block of wood in case more brute force is required.