Velobuild VB-R-218

[JonMS]

Your image is not very helpful as it's a star nut inside an aluminium steerer. Carbon steerers use expansion plugs.
I don't really know how big the gap should be. Dogma manual says to cut the steerer 5 mm below the top of the stem, which I did and it looks like in the image.

VB top cap is shit. Not only is it made of fragile aluminium that breaks easily, it's also very thick - double the size of a carbon cap I got with additional spacers I bought. No wonder you had to sand it down if you didn't want to cut the steerer so low that the top grub screw would push into air instead of into the steerer.

lol it was meant to simply show a gap between the top of the stem (handlebars in the 218 case) and the steerer tube.

Yep I would sand down the crap top cap or run the carbon one. Did you try assembling per my steps?

[Sebastian]

You probably have spare split spacers lying around, right? Use one the to stack your stem a tad higher and tighten everything down and see if the play is gone. If yes, then your fork steerer still is a tad too long. If not, then something else is going on.

[Ar26]

I leave 4mm of distance between the top of the expander and the top cap for the compression of the headset. Watch this video YT to adjust your headset :  "BBInfinite TECH TIP: Adjust a Headset Like a Boss"

[blackpyros]

lol it was meant to simply show a gap between the top of the stem (handlebars in the 218 case) and the steerer tube.
Yep I would sand down the crap top cap or run the carbon one. Did you try assembling per my steps?

I will try the advice of increasing the gap by one 5mm spacer and see how it goes. Also I can't really follow your steps exactly as I would need to disconnect the front hydraulic hose to remove the fork from the headtube but I guess it's fine installing and fully tightening the plug after fork and spacers are already installed.

But I will definitely try to tighten the top cap before clamping the stem although I guess it doesn't really matter. I will also try to apply some carbon paste on the plug to make sure that thing doesn't move up inside of the steerer when tightening the top cap.

EDIT: OK I tried to add the spacer and it indeed helped. No more headset play. Allright, time to shorten the steerer. Wanted to shorten it anyway to remove all the spacers. I was too much conservative with them. I noticed with 3,5 cm spacers my handlebar is almost 5 cm higher than my current bike. Without them it will also look much better. Thanks everyone for help, especially those that told me my steerer might be too long.

[Sebastian]

But I will definitely try to tighten the top cap before clamping the stem although I guess it doesn't really matter.

Just to clarify: Of course it makes a difference. Tightening down the top cap does nothing if you’ve already clamped your stem to the steerer. The top cap/expander assembly is there to press the stem down whilst pulling the fork up and therefore put preload on the upper and lower headset bearing. If the stem can’t move cuz it’s clamped to the steerer, you won’t get any preload on the headset. And sure, if you then go on and tighten down the top cap more and more, it might even break. Though in almost twenty years of biking I have never managed to kill a top cap like that. You might have had particularly bad quality ones.

[blackpyros]

Just to clarify: Of course it makes a difference. Tightening down the top cap does nothing if you’ve already clamped your stem to the steerer. The top cap/expander assembly is there to press the stem down whilst pulling the fork up and therefore put preload on the upper and lower headset bearing. If the stem can’t move cuz it’s clamped to the steerer, you won’t get any preload on the headset. And sure, if you then go on and tighten down the top cap more and more, it might even break. Though in almost twenty years of biking I have never managed to kill a top cap like that. You might have had particularly bad quality ones.

As I said I was not into headset shenanigans but thanks to kind people like you explaining things I think I finally understand it and it makes sense now.

Both caps were kind of shit, the VB one broke before even applying 6 Nm, the carbon one withstood that force but developed cracks probably because the countersunk head screw didn't fit the cap really well.

I now ordered caps together with screws declared to fit 100 % so I should be good now.
Thanks again everybody for help.

[JonMS]

As I said I was not into headset shenanigans but thanks to kind people like you explaining things I think I finally understand it and it makes sense now.

Both caps were kind of shit, the VB one broke before even applying 6 Nm, the carbon one withstood that force but developed cracks probably because the countersunk head screw didn't fit the cap really well.

I now ordered caps together with screws declared to fit 100 % so I should be good now.
Thanks again everybody for help.

Right on. Share some pics when its complete.

[Sebastian]

Since this thread is back from the dead, I thought I might as well give an update. More than 8000k done. No issues. Still the first headset with no signs of wear which is a pleasant surprise.  I wasn’t too confident in those bearings. This is the bike with the race wheels on: 60mm deep/1300g with 28mm tubulars. These feel soo nice when accelerating and the cornering feel is insane. I’m still in love with the handling of this frame and the super quick steering response.

[Serge_K]

Super nice rig. Looks nicer than some of the girls I've had in my bed.