Shwinn Del Mar headset

[Turtle Tedd]

Have a wally shwinn del mar ...if I set the side of the front wheel against something I can move the handelbars sideways with about 15 lbs of pressure...I only noticed this after I raised the bars (handelbar post up) and retightened everything hard...is this normal on these bikes????

 

[cabinfever1977]

i hope not.

 

[s_beaudry]

Movement in handlebars is usually a very bad thing!

Safety must be first here, please check it and fix if needed before riding again...

Take it from someone who flipped over the handllebars already, and yes it hurt bad!

 

[biken stins]

Start over. Loosen allen head bolt and large nut.
Might be a good time to pack the bearings.
Make sure allen bolt is meshing right with angled bolt.
Get bars to height you want, get tire in line, tighten. real tight. Torque. Call bike repair shop ,see it they know how many pounds shoud be applied. Long bar on ratchet will get it tighter but may also snap bolt. Nut can be stripped also. And if we try hard enough we can. Use common sense.
Good Luck

 

[jtmiyake]

sounds to me like you did not get the bearings tightened correctly. This is the round nut with ridges on the sides so you can tighten with fingers. The larger hex nut over that is supposed to act as your lock nut.

 

[Turtle Tedd]

Thanks...Tightened it some more tonight....used a pipe and gave it 150lbs on the turtle scale..thats about what I weigh....no snap or strip..still can get it to move if I block the wheel and really push but the bars do not get stressed in that direction when underway so I guess it will be OK..I think the chinese use old car transmissions for lathes..

 

[Turtle Tedd]

Just could not get sucker tight enough. Wet over a big bump pretty fast.handelbars moved down and sideways too...Replaced it today with a good one from a bike shop...didn't take much wrench tourque to get this one right....you guys with a newer production run Schwinn Del Mar might want to give yours a good tugging on...might be a junk part....I have gotten a lot of good info and direction from you guys..maybe as I gain a little experiance here I can contribute..thanks..............While I was at the shop today I picked up a compression seat post and to go with a cloud 9 seat..Really nice on my boney 60 year old butt...now I can really ride that thing

 

[biken stins]

Glad you got it fixed. Safty is #1.
But waht did you replace? Nut or center bolt ?
When we were kids don't remember being sore after a day of riding. The seats seem better today than 50 years ago. Ride safe.

 

[Turtle Tedd]

Replaced the whole stem with a mountain bike part..When I started puting the calipers on the ones at the bike shop..found out the origional was under sized..how they do that...if one was under the whole production run had to be the same....when I was in the metal trades we used to have to measure a lot of stuff at exaactly 72 degrees to get the tolorances right...What do they do over there eyeball everything,,rubber rulers??