1996 Claud Butler Cape Wrath 653 (The Blue one)

[Peachy!]

Help needed.

I noticed a slight movement had appeared in the head stock after my last ride, so today I thought I’d have a quick look to see what needs sorting. Now I’ve had very little to do with un threaded ahead steering tubes before and always thought that I was missing something, all other changes on bikes I can understand, most have made some improvement (to a lesser or greater degree) but the unthreaded ahead tube? Why? Just why? I can only assume it’s to save money in mfr because the result is a poor replacement to a system that locked the fork and races together then allowed the stem to be adjust as much as required and with one turn of a bolt. Bloody simple and brilliant.

Anyway, getting back to my problem. After I removed the top cap (what does that do?) then the stem clamp, then the brake cable hanger (3 bolts so far) I found a circlip hammered down into the soft aluminium top of the ball race housing/cover. After removing the clip and cover I found the race seems to be the wrong size, it’s internal diameter is 1 1/4” where as the steer tube outside diameter is 1 1/8”.
In my ignorance of these units I’m not sure if this is the problem or if I’m missing another erroneous part?

 

[Takingabreak]

Re:

The top cap screws into the star nut that is inside the fork steerer. This tensions the whole assembly and keeps it stable. So when reassembling, tighten the top cap before tightening the two stem bolts.

Absolutely no idea what the circlip is doing in there. I'd suggest completely taking the forks out, laying the headset parts out in the order that they came apart and posting back on here or googling the headset to see if anything is amiss, assuming the headset has a part number or other identification you can use.

I must admit, I also prefer threaded headsets.

 

[Peachy!]

Re: Re:

The top cap screws into the star nut that is inside the fork steerer. This tensions the whole assembly and keeps it stable. So when reassembling, tighten the top cap before tightening the two stem bolts.

Absolutely no idea what the circlip is doing in there. I'd suggest completely taking the forks out, laying the headset parts out in the order that they came apart and posting back on here or googling the headset to see if anything is amiss, assuming the headset has a part number or other identification you can use.

I must admit, I also prefer threaded headsets.

I think the part I'm missing is a 1"1/8th shim, perhaps it got lost during service by the previous (now deceased) owner…. And made do with the circlip to hold it all together, bit odd though as I don’t see how it would really help…

There’s one on e-bay so I’ve chucked in a bid.

 

[Takingabreak]

Re:

isn't that shim the same piece you are holding in the previous picture?

 

[Takingabreak]

Re:

Forget that last post, the shim slots in to take up the slack between the piece you are holding and the steerer tube.

 

[Takingabreak]

Seen this nice project?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Claude-Butle ... SwObhcsGWR

runs and hides....

 

[The History Man]

Maybe the previous owner was killed when his dodgy headset bodge failed on a downhill section of a long standing team race.

There’s only been one air evacuation I remember and that wasn’t after Andy’s rice and peas.

 

[Peachy!]

Forget that last post, the shim slots in to take up the slack between the piece you are holding and the steerer tube.

Yarp…

Seen this nice project?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Claude-Butle ... SwObhcsGWR

runs and hides....

Yeah….. possibly worth spending the £50 for the front mech & crank set & possibly the shocks that I want for this bike… ‘97/’98 so on the edge of retro, and I think it was the last “Steel” but I never was a fan of the Cr-mo Tange anywhere other than in my handlebars and besides they forgot to put the lugs on…. :facepalm:

 

[Takingabreak]

Who needs lugs? I once had a beautifully fillet brazed Hobbs of Barbican. Workmanship that is hard to find today.

 

[Peachy!]

Maybe the previous owner was killed when his dodgy headset bodge failed on a downhill section of a long standing team race.

There’s only been one air evacuation I remember and that wasn’t after Andy’s rice and peas.

By the looks of this bike I think he died on his couch.. :roll:

Anyway, need another one of these top race covers, this has been properly chewed up and spat out by the circlip...