How to Adjust a Bike's Headset

Does your bike shudder when you hit the brakes? Are your handlebars hard to turn or do the bearings feel rough? If so, you may need to adjust your headset. There are two common types of headsets: threaded and threadless. Both are easy to adjust if you have the right tools.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bike Lube
• Headset Wrenches
• Allen Wrenches

Adjusting Threaded Headsets

1. Know that threaded headsets come on most bikes built before the early 1990s and on some modern road bikes. Threaded headsets have a locknut, and the bike will have a standard quill stem that doesn't fasten directly to the frame's steerer tube.

2. Gather the right tools. You'll need at least one headset wrench and a large adjustable wrench. Headsets come in a variety of sizes - make sure you have the right-size wrench, most likely a 32mm or 36mm.

3. Stand in front of the bike with the front wheel held firmly between your legs.

4. Put the adjustable wrench (or your second headset wrench) on the locknut and the headset wrench on the top bearing cup. Loosen the locknut.

5. Tighten the top bearing cup slightly if the headset was too loose. Loosen the top bearing cup slightly if the headset was too tight.

6. Hold the bearing cup in place and retighten the locknut.

7. Test the headset adjustment. Is it too tight? Does it bind? Or is it too loose? Is there still play? You may need to loosen the locknut and try again.

Adjusting Threadless Headsets

8. Know that threadless headsets come on most recently made bikes. Threadless headsets have a cap on top of the stem with a 5mm Allen bolt, and have no locknut. The stem on a bike with a threadless headset clamps directly to the frame's steerer tube and holds the headset adjustment.

9. Gather the proper tools. You'll most likely need a 5mm Allen wrench. Depending on the stem, you may also need a 4mm or 6mm Allen key.

10. Loosen the bolts that clamp the stem to the steerer tube.

11. Tighten the 5mm Allen bolt on the top cap slightly if the headset was loose. Loosen the 5mm Allen bolt on the top cap slightly if the headset was too tight.

12. Retighten the stem bolts.

13. Test the headset adjustment. Is it too tight? Does it bind? Or is it too loose? Is there still play? You may need to loosen the stem bolts and try again.

14. Test the stem to make sure it's tight on the steerer tube. Place the front wheel between your legs, grab the bars and try to twist them. If the stem slips, it's not tight enough.

Tips & Warnings

• Sometimes a stem will bind a bit on the steerer tube. Be sure to get the stem loose before attempting to adjust the headset.
• Loosen the bolts that attach the stem to the steerer tube before you tighten the 5mm Allen bolt on the stem cap.
• Make sure the stem is tight before you ride your bike again.

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on 11/22/2005 One thing I just discovered that one can do wrong in adjusting the headset is to keep turning the headset cap nut. I turned it too much on my bike. It never really felt like it was tight and I pulled up the star nut, which is what that nut is screwing into.

So, once you have tightened the cap nut enough that when you put the front brake on and move the bike forward and back and there is no rattling, stop tightening the cap nut. Tighten the stem nuts and you're done.

on 11/22/2005 After overhauling or adjusting a bike headset, it may not feel right until the bearings are seated. You can do this by twisting the handlebar back and forth a lot or removing brake/shifter cables and then just keep spinning it.