You are reading a single comment by @Aroogah and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
Aroogah
kjlem
Sometimes if the thread slot is munted and/or the tab on the washer is mashed, it's better to just file off the tab so it stops interfering with the situation.
But yeah, I've also come across some quite severe rattles between steerer and cup; with the headset as well-adjusted and tightened as possible, a clunk under hard braking followed by the headset inevitably loosening itself ensues. Kind of amazed in retrospect it never occurred to me to try thread tape in such instances... I guess I only started using it after I no longer had much to do with threaded steerers.
If the threads don't go down far enough on the steerer, that should be obvious as hell - spin the cup all the way down and it stops rattling on the steerer but the fork still rattles in the headset.
Keep your money gun holstered IMO - unless you don't have any thread tape. If you can get enough jammed in there, it should compress pretty hard and allow the locknut to hold the cup solid. It might take a couple of goes.