00:00Hi, my name's Al and today I'm going to show you how to change your handlebar height by adjusting your stem.
00:12In order to change the height of your bars and adjust your stem, there's not many tools that you need at all.
00:18In most cases, just some allen keys will do the job.
00:21Although some stems will use Torx fasteners, so you may need Torx keys.
00:25And we would recommend the use of a torque wrench just to make sure everything's tightened up properly.
00:31The amount of adjustment that you've got regarding bar height is limited by the length of stereo tube that you've got here.
00:38So you'll have a certain number of spacers and we're basically going to be moving those around in order to lift or lower the stem.
00:46If you want to go any further, then you're going to need a different stem with either a positive or a negative rise.
00:53We wouldn't recommend using any more than 30mm worth of spacers underneath the stem because it can put extra strain on your stereo tube, which could cause it to fail.
01:05First thing that we're going to do is we're going to loosen the stem.
01:08So in this case it's a T30 Torx key and we're undoing the pinch bolt there and that will leave the stem free to move on the stereo tube.
01:25With that loose, we're going to move on to the preload bolt here on the top.
01:32And all that this bolt and the top cap does is it compresses the whole bearing assembly by pushing the stem down, preloading the bearings and getting rid of any slop in the steering.
01:46It should only be nipped up.
01:49If it's over tightened, it'll crush your bearings.
01:52The steering won't feel so good.
01:55So with that removed and this bolt undone, you'll see I'm holding the fork.
01:59The reason for that is it is free to drop out at any time.
02:03There's nothing holding it in anymore other than a bit of friction.
02:09So now we're able to remove our stem like so and we can reposition these spacers wherever we like in order to change the height.
02:24So what we're going to do is we're going to put all our spacers in this instance underneath the stem.
02:34So we've got two 10s, two 5s, so 30 mil, no more than that.
02:40No bike should ever come supplied with more than that anyway really, especially with a carbon steerer.
02:49And we must always ensure that there's only a couple of mil gap between the top of the steerer tube and the edge of the stem.
03:01Any more and you'll again be putting too much stress on the steerer tube, which could cause it to fail, which would obviously be horrible.
03:09That gap there is absolutely necessary in order to take the recess here on the top cap and to give a little bit of adjustment.
03:21So as we tighten this preload bolt, there's enough space for everything to compress.
03:27If the steerer was flush with the top of the stem, it wouldn't go anywhere and you'd never be able to adjust your headset properly.
03:33So we're just going to nip this bolt up.
03:36Check that everything's straight.
03:39You might want to do that on the floor just to get it spot on.
03:45And then it's literally finger and thumb.
03:52And that should leave the bearings turning nice and smoothly with no play.
03:59Once that's done, you just need to re-tighten the stem.
04:03We're just going to nip that up.
04:07And then we're just going to finish that off with a torque wrench.
04:11Most stems will have a torque setting on them.
04:13In this case, it's eight Newton meters.
04:16So set your torque wrench appropriately and tighten away.
04:26And that's that.
04:27Stems being raised.
04:29It's a good idea just to do some final checks before you go out on the road to double check
04:36that adjustment of your headset so everything should be feeling nice and smooth.
04:41And if you grab the bars and try and flex them side to side, then you should feel no play
04:48at all.
04:50Again, just to make sure, stick the front wheel between your legs.
04:56Try and move the stem.
04:58If it's all torped up correctly, it shouldn't move, but it's worth checking.
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