Today is time to maintaining the headset bearings even if I will overhaul the whole bike in the winter with complete new bearings.
These tools are needed for the Allez:
- Bike stand
- 4mm Allen key
- 5mm Allen key
- 6mm Allen key
- Torque Wrench
- Grease
- Synthetic Oil
- bowl and jar
NO warranty in ANY case of damage.
First of all is to mount the bike into the stand and disassemble the front wheel. After that procedure it is possible to unsrew the ahead cap and the stem screws.
When the screws are loosen it is time to disconnect the front brake and unplug the stem and spacers… Attention – look after your fork!
In the end the bearings. Mine are sitting still inside the cups. After the removal I gave them a quick cleanup with a towel.
Now I checked the bearings for movement. Everything normal just a small scrub in the both bearing. Because they are sealed bearings it is impossible to clean them in total. So I dropped them in synthetic oil for a while. Every 4-7 minutes I gave them a spin to turn out the muck.
In the meantime I cleaned up everything else: fork shaft and crown, bearing cups, spacers, compression ring and bearing cover.
In the end I greased up every thing (crown and cups) and reassemble the whole piece of art =)
To tighten every within the correct torque a torque wrench is mandatory. First of all after the alignment the ahead cap just “hand tight”. This is to keep the bearings on pressure. Then the steam bolts on mine 5NM each. And last but not least the front break 6NM.
To verify the setup, go for a ride =D
-LeMarque