"In general I wouldn't say that either threaded or threadless headsets are inherently easier or harder to understand or adjust; it's just a matter of educating yourself on the procedures either way."
I agree and would add that the great thing about threadless is that you are generally carrying the tool needed to adjust the entire system with you on a ride where a threaded headset you need two rather large wrenches...and I'd be surprised if anybody carries them while riding. Either way, set it up and adjust it right once and you generally don't have to screw around with it on the road/trail (unless you are wrenching the bars back and forth during a rather jarring single track ride and have the quill slip and turn...happened to me once). I have found the beauty of threaded to be not only the aesthetics, which I prefer, but it's way easier to adjust stem height. On Tuesday, July 24, 2018 at 2:07:40 PM UTC-5, Jeremy Till wrote: > Hey Steve, it's really simple to adjust a threadless headset: > > 1. Loosen clamping bolts on the stem. > 2. Tighten the bolt in the top cap just enough that no play can be > discerned via the usual headset adjustment check (locking front brake, > rocking the bike against the fork). If the headset is too tight, loosen > until there is play and re-tighten appropriately. > 3. Check that stem is aligned with front wheel > 4. Tighten clamping bolts on the stem. > > I then usually double check that the headset is rotating freely by lifting > the bike with the rear end elevated and making sure the fork returns to > center when turned to either side, but i would do that for either a > threaded or threadless headset. > > In general I wouldn't say that either threaded or threadless headsets are > inherently easier or harder to understand or adjust; it's just a matter of > educating yourself on the procedures either way. > > On Tuesday, July 24, 2018 at 10:24:15 AM UTC-7, Steve Palincsar wrote: >> >> Actually, a threaded headset's adjustment is quite easy to understand. >> It's obvious, really: there are nuts that are clearly meant to be >> tightened or loosened. Threadless is another story: there's no visible >> means of support, other than maybe mash down hard on the stem and then >> clamp it down, but that hardly seems to make any sense, and if that was >> how it was supposed to work it couldn't possibly be very accurate. >> >> But my point is simply that for all the talk about how simple it is, >> I've yet to find anybody on a ride who knew how to adjust one even >> though they all had them and they all had the tools. (And no, I have no >> idea how to do it. I can do a fair job with a threaded headset, though.) >> >> And I should add, the only bike I ever had that had an issue with the >> threaded headset loosening turned out to be a problem with the washers >> not being thick enough. Once that was fixed, no further problems. Of >> course I don't ride MTB. >> >> >> On 07/24/2018 12:37 PM, masmojo wrote: >> > Grant, yes that's the technique I use (learned working in a bike shop >> 37 years ago), but no matter, eventually they come loose. Steel headsets >> tend to stay in place better, fewer problems with loosening, but they're >> heavy. Aluminum on the other hand comes loose no matter. I discover mine is >> loose typically on washboard surfaces when I'm miles from home. >> > >> > Steve, thing is people who can't adjust a threadless headset are going >> to have a hard time wrapping their head around a threaded headset/quill >> stem as well. >> > >> >> -- >> Steve Palincsar >> Alexandria, Virginia >> USA >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
