Lifting the bars

Johan

Take it to Melville's at the Crescent.....

Jean

Johann Snyman said...

Quoted message said:

Hi All.

Well, I got my GT 2 days ago, and went for a nice test drive today. I thoroughly enjoyed it! It
felt pretty weird to have the shock in front at first, but I got used to it quickly. What took
longer to get used to is the V brakes. Call me old or something, but I am used to the old style
brakes (dunno what you call them) on a steel rim. These V brakes on an alloy rim has good bite! Or
maybe it is the brake levers, the pull nice and smooth. My old bike I had to squeeze like
something else to get them to move. These I can pull with one finger.

Well, anyway. As you can see, I am pretty happy. I got one question though, (and probably
more later)

I would like to lift the handlebars a bit higher. (2 or so cm) I'm probably an idiot, but I cant
seem to get the thingy (Whotchercallit, see tinyurl.commh17Open ↗ for a stolen pic, the area in
red is the thing I'm talking about) loosened. I unscrewed the allen bolt in the head part quite a
bit, and then whacked it a bit with a rubber hammer, but it did not come loose. Later I saw
mention on the 'net of a two bolt system, but I donno how it works.

Please clear up my confusion and help me lift my bars a bit. That would be great.

PS: To be exact, the bike is a GT Avalanche 3.0

Current bikes have what is called a threadless steering system. You can't just raise the bars by
loosening the top bolt on the stem and pulling up as you could with an old style threaded steerer.
That bolt does nothing except set the preload on the headset bearings. Once the bolts on the stem
are tightened it doesn't really do anything except stay put. Raising the height of the stem isn't as
easy as it used to be. You are behind the times and you need to do some catching up. Take it to a
bike shop and have them help you out with options. It would take too long to explain it here and it
would be too hard to follow. To get your bars 2cm higher, you will probably have to buy a stem or
bar with more rise.

Super Slinky said:

Johann Snyman said...

Quoted message said:

Hi All.

Please clear up my confusion and help me lift my bars a bit. That would be great.

PS: To be exact, the bike is a GT Avalanche 3.0

You are behind the times and you need to do some catching up. Take it to

Now that is pretty true. 🙂 Where can I find a good technical site teaching these things?

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J2 said:

Johan

Take it to Melville's at the Crescent.....

I am in Secunda. Not much like LBS around here. Well, there is two bike shop kinda thingies, (I
bought this bike at one of them) and I'll go ask them, but I'd like to learn to do it myself.

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Johann Snyman <[email hidden]> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Now that is pretty true. 🙂 Where can I find a good technical site teaching these things?

sheldonbrown.comsheldonbrown.comOpen ↗ is excellent.

I'd also recommend grabbing -Zinn & the ARt of Mountain Bike Maintenance- (tinyurl.commhk0Open ↗).
It answered a lot of my noob questions.

Geo
--
George Mealer geo*AT*snarksoft*DOT*com

"Alright, it's Saturday night...I have no date, a two-liter bottle
of Shasta, and my all-Rush mix tape. Let's rock!" -- Philip J. Fry

Johann Snyman said...

Quoted message said:

Now that is pretty true. 🙂 Where can I find a good technical site teaching these things?

www.sheldonbrown.com It isn't the most elegant web site, but if you poke around you can find just
about everything you need. www.parktool.com is also good. But your best friend is Google. Just about
everything has been discussed in depth on usenet and there lots of web pages too.

George Mealer said:

Johann Snyman <[email hidden]> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Now that is pretty true. 🙂 Where can I find a good technical site teaching these things?

Quoted message said:

I'd also recommend grabbing -Zinn & the ARt of Mountain Bike Maintenance-
(tinyurl.commhk0Open ↗). It answered a lot of my noob questions.

It is on order. 15 days for delivery. 🙁

Meanwhile, I'll check out sheldonbrown.com

Thank you all for your help.

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RE/

Quoted message said:

www.sheldonbrown.com It isn't the most elegant web site, but if you poke around you can find just
about everything you need.

I'd give him plenty points for elegance. Especially the saddle pages with the
"Wider/Narrower" options.
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PeteCresswell