Bicycle Maintenance Tips - How to install a threadless stem for your bike

Hey, this is Jeff at the Two Wheeler Dealer. Today I'm going to show you how to install a threadless stem. Well, you're going to start with a threadless stem. First you have to determine the proper length to cut the steer tube. And or the proper amount of headset spacers that are going to go underneath it. What you're looking for is about a five millimeter gap when all these are together, between the top of the steer tube and the top of the stem. This will allow you to have adjust to it to compress it to actually adjust the bearings. So this is all set up right. You're then going to take your top cap and insert that. Thread this down. And then taking a five millimeter Allen wrench, going to tighten this down with just light pressure making sure that there's no play in it. And once you have that set, then put your handle bar in. And there are two bolts in the face plate. Both five millimeters. Go ahead thread those in. Then set this at a good angle. You want your wrists nice and straight when they're out on the hoods. Get it centered. Lock it down in place. You want to equally tighten both of these to leave an equal space between the face plate and the stem. And once those are set, you then align the handle bars straight. Double check your headset adjustment. Grab the front brake. Wiggle the bike forward and back. And also side to side. Make sure there's no play in those bearings. Give it a couple of drops, make sure it's not rattling. And then set your two five millimeter on your stem clamp. And you want to snug these down pretty tight. If there is a recommended torque. Definitely use a torque wrench. Especially if you have a carbon steer tube or a carbon handle bar. And that's how to install a threadless stem.