The handlebar that is. A long time ago I replaced the fork on the Yuba Mundo with one which had tabs for mounting a disc brake. The new fork has a threadless steerer, the whole arrangement is very sturdy and heavy-duty which is what I wanted, but ever since then the handlebar has felt just that bit too low. Unlike with a quill stem, you cannot easily raise the handlebar with the threadless system. My lazy solution to this has been to have the saddle a little bit lower than is ideal to compensate, until now that is. I picked this up from Edinburgh Bicycle Co-Operative on a whim.
Designed to allow that little bit more height adjustment when using a threadless fork. I decided to document the installation for the benefit of others.
I unscrewed the compression bolt from the top cap of the Yuba Mundo headset and removed the bolt and cap.
The star-nut is visible inside the steerer tube. Next I unscrewed the clamping bolts on the stem until they were loose enough to allow me to remove the stem.
Here is the exposed steerer tube after stem removal. I had to replace the headset spacer seen resting on the top bearing race with a slightly thicker one due to the difference in size between the original stem and the stem riser which was to go in its place.
The stem riser was installed in the same (albeit reversed) manner the stem was removed. The stem was then clamped onto the stem riser, around 5 cm higher than it was originally.
The solution isn’t exactly elegant, but it is practical, which is what the Yuba is really all about. I will test ride the bike with the new handlebar position soon and report on how much of a difference it makes.
After a reasonable length test ride, I declare the procedure a success. Yuba riding position is now pretty much the same as the Tourist. All I need now is another Brooks...
ReplyDeleteCheers for the write up - am pondered over one of those for old mtb which suffers the same problem. No rush though - I've only been moaning about it since 1995!
ReplyDeleteHaving re-read your Yuba fork article, I'm just wondering how much of the steerer needed chopping off. Surly ship the LHT uncut, leaving you to juggle the spacers around to get an ideal height for the bars.
Still, there's a lot to be said for a threaded headset isn't there? ;>)
I didn't bother chopping any of it off, the headtube is pretty long on the Yuba. Even so, I'd have left it intact and just put spacers between the stem and the top-cap if needed, less effort involved with getting the steerer cut plus the fork could be used in another bike/sold at some point down the line if needed.
ReplyDeleteThreaded headsets do have some definite advantages though.