How far can you push it?

Dave B · #1 08-30-2007, 05:59 AM

My buddy brought his mountain bike over for me to work on it and get it ready for a race he is doing. He simply needed some adjustments and so forth. He did however have me press in a new headset (same kind different color), again no big deal, but when I went to remove his stem there was a larger gap between his steerer tube and the top of the stem then I have ever seen/used.

He has a Moots mtb stem which has 5cm of stack height and a steerer tube which has 4cm of stack height.

So I told him that was too much that usually you want about 3mm to 6mm of room.

He refused to use a different stem as he likes the Moots one (which I understand because it is beautiful) but my questions is, if he uses a longer top cap bolt would this 1cm gap be ok?

The top pinch bolt is still on the steerer tube, but there is exactly a 1cm space between the steerer top and the top cap.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

frenk · #2 08-30-2007, 06:37 AM

5 cm of stack height is quite big (my road Newton has 38 IIRC), if as you say the second bolt is still on the clamp it may be safe, but better ask someone more experienced.

Dave B · #3 08-30-2007, 07:50 AM

Anyone? This is on a mountain bike.

Moots stem....10mm too much of a gap?