Current Projects chat and miscellany

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Jonny69 in reply to @MCamb

Also has an old clip type headset, the quill stem that is currently installed seems a lot more modern and is very hard / impossible to do up tightly, as in you can force it to shift out of place if you hold the wheel still. Are there different internal steerer diameters but still ‘1inch’ (particularly for old bikes)?

Clip type stems on single bikes are ~22mm diameter quill, not 22.2mm like usual. The pinch bolt in the clip holds it in afaik and there’s no wedge or expander. I’ve got a 70s French Atax stem in my Parkes which fits in because it’s 22mm. It’s secured by the expander but I haven’t tried pulling it around while done up.

I -think- there is a slightly bigger diameter clip for tandems and I wonder if yours might be. Could well be that a 22.2 is loose in there and the wedge doesn’t really pull it up. Could also be worn quill or the steerer reamed to fit a normal quill but done a bit too much. Wonder if it’s worth putting a spare set of bars in another quill and seeing if it makes a difference. If you’re anywhere near Staines you’re welcome to borrow some of mine.

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MCamb in reply to @Jonny69

Clip type stems on single bikes are ~22mm diameter quill, not 22.2mm like usual. The pinch bolt in the clip holds it in afaik and there’s no wedge or expander.

Ah, I didn’t know that. The stem is actually too narrow in diameter for the clip to hold it at all- it sits in there with a sizeable gap, and secures (somewhat) with the expander further down.

staines

Thanks v much but its quite a distance!

I’ll experiment with some alternative quills for now

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themidge in reply to @MCamb

Hilary Stone has some good info about head clip headsets:
http://hilarystone.com/CCheadsetsandbbs.html

Depending on when/where/by whom the frame was made, the headset will have been designed to fit with a 1" (external diameter) steerer or a 31/32" steerer (external again). My Hetchins has a 1" steerer despite being pre-war (31/32 was more common then) so a normal Cinelli 1A fits in fine and securely without needing the expander. I guess you might have a smaller diameter stem installed by someone thinking the steerer was 31/32" when it's actually 1" ?
The fact that it's a tandem headset probably complicates things as well. If the stem will tighten with the expander further down, you could try on of those really long Nitto quill stems to see if the extra length allows you to get it secure and shim it at the clip to stop rattles.

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