Canyon Ultimate - fork loose
 

Hi there

I have a Canyon Ultimate SLX 9.

There is some play in the front forks when i use the front break.

It's got the Canyon aero bars. It's happened once before and was fixed in a couple of minutes by a passing cyclist, but I just can't work out how to tighten it up.

Any advice would be very welcome.

Many thanks

How about adjusting the headset? Threadless Headset Service | Park Tool

Very little info, is this a new bike, was it ever set up correctly??

If you can drop the money on a Canyon Ultimate SLX 9 thinking your probably the kind of rider who really should be going to a good LBS for this work.

If you hold the front brake and rock the bike forward and back, and the fork goes 'ka-chunk' a little bit in the headtube then your threadless stem is loose. Do this:

Loosen the two pinchbolts on the stem, until the whole cockpit moves freely around the steerer

Tighten the bolt in the stemcap, snug, but not tight. I'd say even a little less than snug. You do not want tighten so much that the headset bearings are under pressure.

Straighten the stem and tighten the pinchbolts back up.


If that doesn't solve your problem, then you have some other problem

EDIT: jimc101 beat me to it!

I'm definitely taking it to a LBS, but i'm sure it's an easy fix.
1 stem bolt and two bolts on the spacers.

Thanks for your help :thumb:

[blind guess] aluminum steerer, carbon fork? the bonding is loose, between the 2..

Giving a try to doing it yourself will take less time than a round trip to the lbs. Probably less time than getting the bike into the car. And of course it will be free, and ever after you will be empowered with increased knowledge.

But yeah, you can go ahead and take it to lbs. Glad you checked with us first though.

just taking a wild stab at it... :lol:

the 'stem bolt' as you call it is the adjusting bolt, but doesn't work until the 'two bolts on the spacers' are loosened.

so loosen the 'two bolts on the spacers' then tighten the 'stem bolt' until the play goes away and straighten the handlebars if they are not straight, then tighten the 'two bolts on the spacers'. if there is still play, or it's too tight, then 'rinse and repeat' until satisfied with the results.

i'm assuming that the amount and placement of spacers is such that they are capable of creating a properly adjusted fork, because they may not be. in which case you may need an additional spacer and my 'wild stab' missed the mark, ...once again. :)

so loosen the 'two bolts on the spacers' then tighten the 'stem bolt' until the play goes away and straighten the handlebars if they are not straight, then tighten the 'two bolts on the spacers'. if there is still play, or it's too tight, then 'rinse and repeat' until satisfied with the results.

This may sound a daft question but with the stem bolt been tight already, do I loosen that, then re tighten and then tighten the two bolts on the spacers?

Full instructions from my first post still apply.

The top bolt in the stem cap is the actual adjustment. The pinch bolts on the side are to hold the stem tight to the steerer (so they prevent the stem bolt for being able to make any adjustment).

Once the stem bolt is tight enough to take out the play, the pinch bolts lock that adjustment in place.

not daft, if it is unclear how a threadless headset works. and THAT is not uncommon. :)

short answer is, go ahead and loosen it. but (and it is not ultimately necessary if you understand this) it has little to do with holding the fork and stem together. it's really just a convenient adjusting mechanism, the 'two bolts on the spacers' keep everything together, permanently. in fact, i remove that 'stem bolt' and the cap after i adjust the stem/fork and tighten the 'two bolts on the spacers'. and keep it on the shelf at home. really. :)

and, hold on to your hat, i do the same with my one piece Shimano Dura-Ace crank plastic nut. shameful, i know. :lol:

if you want to know how it works, just try putting it back together with a spacer or two missing. i image you'll soon find out what's going on. BTW, take a pic or something before you do it so you don't forget how everything goes back together.

edit: oops, just read previous post... so... what he said. :thumb:

All the instructions are correct but I suspect that if it's regularly coming loose then the culprit will be the expansion bung pulling out of the steerer in my experience this is a common scenario so any adjustment is only good until the bung moves a little more it's a little more involved to fix this if your not used to working on headsets but in the scheme of things it's still dead easy and there are plenty if online videos etc..with carbon steerers a torque wrench is important failing that take it to your lbs

I did that for a while too. I was building up my bike, and I didn't have enough headset spacers laying around, so I borrowed some from another bike just so I could tighten down the headset sufficiently, clamp it off with the pinch bolts, and then take the stem cap and spacers off and put them back on the other bike.

I've been told that's dangerous though, because in an accident you could possibly core yourself with that open tube.

Yes, and watch and learn what they do, Grasshopper.

Nice bike: no way it should be anything but rock solid and stable. Good luck.

Zombie thread, I know, but I have the same bike and possibly a related problem

With the CP10 integrated cocckpt, after a while, the cockpit gets loose - rocking a little when I'm pulling on the bars. The culprit seems to be the "adjusting bolt" or "stem bolt". I tighten it (to 3 Nm) and all is good, but then a few hundred miles later, it comes loose again. And repeat.

Clearly I'm doing something wrong. As advice above from hueyhoolihan and RubeRad , it sounds like I should loosen that bolt, loosen the clamping bolts, tighten the adjusting bolt (to what torque?) and then retighten the clamping bolts to spec?

If you are having consistent problems which it sounds like you are I would take it to your local shop and have them take a look at it. There could be some other issues lurking. One of the bike issues with bikes they ship to your house is if you don't have all the tools and know how you might miss some stuff on building it and not know it till too late. A shop can take a look and make sure everything was done right and also fix any issues like this.

If you are trying to tighten the stem/adjusting bolt without loosening the side/clamping bolts, then the clamping bolts will be holding the stem fixed on the steerer, and I would be surprised if the adjusting bolt could accomplish anything at all. You need the clamping bolts loose so the stem is free to move up and down, then the adjusting bolt pushes it down, then the clamping bolts hold it down.

You say integrated cockpit though, I'm just talking about regular threadless systems, where steerer tube, stem, and bars are all separate parts. It may be that a custom integrated system has a totally different design, and my advice is useless

However this looks like the same princpie to me:
https://cdn.road.cc/sites/default/fi...20-%20stem.jpg

Is it one of the weird headsets Canyon uses? https://www.******.com/r/cycling/com..._and_headsets/ (r e d d i t)
I know I took one look at the Aheadset on my Inflite and immediately ordered a Shimano expander plug.

Yes, that's basically it, though I can't tell from the picture whether it is the CP10 or one of their closely-related models.

loosen everything and then tighten in the order that everybody seems to think is right. Will see how that works.

My money says somebody took the headset apart and forgot to put the race-centering cone back on. But since I can't see the headset, this is just a wild-assed guess.

Thanks all for the advice. The cockpit is firm now. Time will tell of the problem recurs.

If the star nut (or sometimes called spider nut) in the stem is walking (pulling to the top) , the pinch bolts might be stretching or the torque value is off.

Some threadless headsets require a slight gap between the top of the steerer tube on the fork and the top cap of the stem (integrated or not). Without that gap, the adjustment bolt will work itself loose resulting in a loose headset. I don't know anything about a Canyon bike, I've never seen one, let alone worked on one. A quick diagnostic fix would be to move a thin spacer from below the stem to above, adjust the headset by the steps outlined above and see if the adjustment holds after a couple of rides.
Or just be like the majority of bike riders and take it to your LBS

Good point. The top of your steering tube spacers needs to be proud of the steering tube to "draw up" the steering tube with sufficient force. Be aware that the stiffness of your stem cap through which the "adjuster bolt" is tightened does affect the end result. Not surprisingly, stiffer is better.

Or better yet, take it to the LBS, watch what THEY do, and now you'll know how to do it. BUT make sureyou underestand how it all works AND use a torque wrench!