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SportsTranscript
00:00 (drilling)
00:02 Hi, my name's Al, and today I'm going to show you
00:06 how to change your handlebar height by adjusting your stem.
00:10 In order to change the height of your bars
00:14 and adjust your stem,
00:15 there's not many tools that you need at all.
00:18 In most cases, just some Allen keys will do the job,
00:21 although some stems will use Torx fasteners,
00:23 so you may need Torx keys,
00:25 and we would recommend the use of a Torx wrench
00:28 just to make sure everything's tightened up properly.
00:31 The amount of adjustment that you've got
00:33 regarding bar height is limited
00:35 by the length of steerer tube that you've got here,
00:38 so you'll have a certain number of spacers,
00:40 and we're basically gonna be moving those around
00:43 in order to lift or lower the stem.
00:46 If you wanna go any further,
00:47 then you're gonna need a different stem
00:49 with either a positive or a negative rise.
00:52 We wouldn't recommend using any more
00:55 than 30 mil worth of spacers underneath the stem
00:59 'cause it can put extra strain on your steerer tube,
01:03 which could cause it to fail.
01:05 First thing that we're gonna do
01:06 is we're gonna loosen the stem.
01:07 So in this case, it's a T30 Torx key,
01:10 and we're undoing the pinch bolt there,
01:16 and that will leave the stem free to move on the steerer tube
01:24 With that loose, we're going to move on
01:28 to the preload bolt here on the top,
01:31 and all that this bolt and the top cap does
01:35 is it compresses the whole bearing assembly
01:39 by pushing the stem down, preloading the bearings,
01:42 and getting rid of any slop in the steering.
01:44 It should only be nipped up.
01:48 If it's over-tightened, it'll crush your bearings.
01:51 The steering won't feel so good.
01:54 So with that removed and this bolt undone,
01:57 you'll see I'm holding the fork.
01:59 Reason for that is it is free to drop out at any time.
02:02 There's nothing holding it in anymore
02:04 other than a bit of friction.
02:06 So now we're able to remove our stem like so,
02:13 and we can reposition these spacers wherever we like
02:20 in order to change the height.
02:23 So what we're going to do is we're going to put
02:27 all our spacers in this instance underneath the stem.
02:30 So we've got two 10s, two 5s, so 30 mil, no more than that.
02:39 No bike should ever come supplied
02:42 with more than that anyway, really,
02:43 especially with a carbon steerer.
02:49 And we must always ensure
02:51 that there's only a couple of mil gap
02:56 between the top of the steerer tube
02:59 and the edge of the stem.
03:01 Any more and you will again be putting too much stress
03:05 on the steerer tube, which could cause it to fail,
03:07 which would obviously be horrible.
03:09 That gap there is absolutely necessary
03:12 in order to take the recess here on the top cap
03:19 and to give a little bit of adjustment.
03:21 So as we tighten this preload bolt,
03:23 there's enough space for everything to compress.
03:27 If the steerer was flush with the top of the stem,
03:29 it wouldn't go anywhere,
03:30 and you'd never be able to adjust your headset properly.
03:33 So we're just going to nip this bolt up,
03:35 check that everything's straight.
03:39 You might want to do that on the floor
03:44 just to get it spot on.
03:49 And then it's literally finger and thumb,
03:51 and that should leave the bearings turning
03:54 nice and smoothly with no play.
03:58 Once that's done, you need to retighten the stem.
04:02 We're just going to nip that up,
04:05 and then we're just going to finish that off
04:09 with a torque wrench.
04:10 Most stems will have a torque setting on them.
04:13 In this case, it's eight Newton meters.
04:16 So set your torque wrench appropriately
04:20 and tighten away.
04:24 And that's that, stem's been raised.
04:28 It's a good idea just to do some final checks
04:33 before you go out on the road
04:34 to double check that adjustment of your headset
04:38 so everything should be feeling nice and smooth.
04:40 And if you grab the bars and try and flex them
04:44 side to side, then you should feel no play at all.
04:48 Again, just to make sure,
04:53 stick the front wheel between your legs,
04:56 try and move the stem.
04:58 If it's all torqued up correctly, it shouldn't move,
05:00 but it's worth checking.
05:03 So that's it, we're all done,
05:05 ready to go out and hit the road.
05:06 Thanks for watching, see you next time.
05:08 [WHOOSH]