Clunky fork

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ootini
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Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 5:45 pm

Clunky fork

Post by ootini »

Bonj!
I was out on my Arkose the other day and noticed that when stationary, hold the brake, there's a little play in the fork / steerer, resulting in a clunk if I push forward. If I look closely I can see the frame and fork move against each other very slightly.
Is this a symptom of a knackered headset? Bearings? Crap setup?
Thanks
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PaulB2
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Re: Clunky fork

Post by PaulB2 »

Silly question but is your headset just loose? I had a similar issue with mine after I’d flipped the stem because I didn’t retighten everything back up again enough (frightened of my first all carbon fork)
Gari
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Re: Clunky fork

Post by Gari »

Sounds like a loose headset as per PaulB2’s comment.
Try loosening the stem bolts, then tighten the stem cap until the play stops, but not so much that the forks won’t turn, then retighten the stem bolts and you should be good. If it persists then yeh, possibly the headset is humped.
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ootini
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Re: Clunky fork

Post by ootini »

Ahhhhh I'll give it a go.
Thanks both.
Any particular torque I should limit too ?
pistonbroke
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Re: Clunky fork

Post by pistonbroke »

Be careful after you've tightened everything down, you need to make sure that the steering is smooth. Lift the front end and turn the bars, if it feels notchy, the balls in the bearing have slumped into the races and it's new headset time. Riding with this problem is potentially dangerous as the bike can fall into bends and become unstable.
Ruddy22
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Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:56 am

Re: Clunky fork

Post by Ruddy22 »

Just check it isn't movement in the disc pads when you lock the brakes and rock forward and backward. Had me stumped a few years ago and worked it out...
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thenorthwind
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Re: Clunky fork

Post by thenorthwind »

Sounds like classic loose headset symptoms as others have said.

But if not, check the brakes - I once spent a while trying to fix what felt a lot like a loose headset, but turned out to be a brake rotor moving slightly (it was on a centrelock-IS adapter).
Gummikuh
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Re: Clunky fork

Post by Gummikuh »

Try turning the bars to 90degrees and then do the same, is the clunk still there?

That way you can eliminate the disc pads.
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