Handle bar turns but not the fork

Sorry for layman's terms. Take this picture as an example:
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.c..._1997_11540645

I have a regular simple bike. When I fix the position of the front
wheel with my legs standing in front, the handle bar and stem can
still be turned. Everything from where the arrow "headset" points at
down is fixed (does not move), including the big nut, washer, etc. I
tightened the stem bolt (the one at the top of stem) and the big lock
nut. Nothing helped at all. I can't figure out how the stem is
connected to the fork so they swing left and right together. It used
to work fine and started to have the problem today when I made a quick
turn today.

Thanks for help.

Yong Huang
yong321 @ yahoo.com

"Yong Huang" wrote in message
...
Sorry for layman's terms. Take this picture as an example:
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.c..._1997_11540645

I have a regular simple bike. When I fix the position of the front
wheel with my legs standing in front, the handle bar and stem can
still be turned. Everything from where the arrow "headset" points at
down is fixed (does not move), including the big nut, washer, etc. I
tightened the stem bolt (the one at the top of stem) and the big lock
nut. Nothing helped at all. I can't figure out how the stem is
connected to the fork so they swing left and right together. It used
to work fine and started to have the problem today when I made a quick
turn today.

This is a problem.

1) If you have the older type of stem that goes down into the steering tube
the screw may be loose and just need tightening. Just straighten the bars to
the correct position and tighten the top screw until it locks do not
overtighten but make sure that it is snug.

2) If you have the kind that clamps around the outside of the steering tube
the clamps may be loose. Just straighten the bars to the correct position
and tighten the clamps.

3) Worst case is that the steering tube itself has come loose from the fork
or broken. This is bad and you cannot ride the bike at this point. The fork
MUST be replaced.

On May 18, 3:28 pm, Yong Huang wrote:
Sorry for layman's terms. Take this picture as an example:http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.c..._1997_11540645

I have a regular simple bike. When I fix the position of the front
wheel with my legs standing in front, the handle bar and stem can
still be turned. Everything from where the arrow "headset" points at
down is fixed (does not move), including the big nut, washer, etc. I
tightened the stem bolt (the one at the top of stem) and the big lock
nut. Nothing helped at all. I can't figure out how the stem is
connected to the fork so they swing left and right together. It used
to work fine and started to have the problem today when I made a quick
turn today.

The shift (derailleur) cable in that picture is actually the front
brake cable.

Kind of tough to diagnose a problem remotely, but you may have
overtightened the headset (big nut) and not tightened the stem bolt
enough. In other words you may have clamped the fork in place. Can
you rotate the fork freely from the bottom? You should be able to.
Take the front wheel off and grasp the bottom of the fork in one hand
and try to wiggle it around and rotate it. You should be able to
rotate it with essentially no effort and there shouldn't be any
movement besides rotation when you try to wiggle it. If that's all
good, then what Tom said.

R

On May 18, 2:49 pm, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:

1) If you have the older type of stem that goes down into the steering tube
the screw may be loose and just need tightening. Just straighten the bars to
the correct position and tighten the top screw until it locks do not
overtighten but make sure that it is snug.

That's it. Thanks, Tom. I thought I tightened it. After I read your
message, I went outside and tried again. The screw was quite loose.
Since it needs an allen wrench, I probably didn't tighten it enough
the first time.

Yong Huang

On May 18, 5:41*pm, Yong Huang wrote:
On May 18, 2:49 pm, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:



1) If you have the older type of stem that goes down into the steering tube
the screw may be loose and just need tightening. Just straighten the bars to
the correct position and tighten the top screw until it locks do not
overtighten but make sure that it is snug.

That's it. Thanks, Tom. I thought I tightened it. After I read your
message, I went outside and tried again. The screw was quite loose.
Since it needs an allen wrench, I probably didn't tighten it enough
the first time.

Yong Huang

Yong,

check this out:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/handsup.html

make sure you don't have your handlebars too low for your steerer
(scroll down to the bottom of the page for an explanation.

nate