How To Adjust Your Handlebar Height - video Dailymotion

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02/02/2025

How to change your handlebar height

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00:00Hi, my name's Al and today I'm going to show you how to change your handlebar height by

00:09adjusting your stem.

00:12In order to change the height of your bars and adjust your stem, there's not many tools

00:16that you need at all.

00:18In most cases, just some Allen keys will do the job, although some stems will use Torx

00:23fasteners, so you may need Torx keys, and we would recommend the use of a Torx wrench

00:28just to make sure everything's tightened up properly.

00:31The amount of adjustment that you've got regarding bar height is limited by the length of stereo

00:36tube that you've got here, so you'll have a certain number of spacers and we're basically

00:41going to be moving those around in order to lift or lower the stem.

00:46If you want to go any further, then you're going to need a different stem with either

00:50a positive or a negative rise.

00:53We wouldn't recommend using any more than 30 mil worth of spacers underneath the stem

00:59because it can put extra strain on your stereo tube, which could cause it to fail.

01:05First thing that we're going to do is we're going to loosen the stem.

01:07So in this case, it's a T30 Torx key and we're undoing the pinch bolt there and that will

01:17leave the stem free to move on the stereo tube.

01:25With that loose, we're going to move on to the preload bolt here on the top, and all

01:32that this bolt and the top cap does is it compresses the whole bearing assembly by pushing

01:39the stem down, preloading the bearings, and getting rid of any slop in the steering.

01:46It should only be nipped up, if it's over-tightened, it'll crush your bearings, the steering won't

01:52feel so good.

01:55So with that removed and this bolt undone, you'll see I'm holding the fork, the reason

01:59for that is it is free to drop out at any time, there's nothing holding it in anymore

02:04other than a bit of friction.

02:09So now we're able to remove our stem, like so, and we can reposition these spacers wherever

02:20we like in order to change the height.

02:24So what we're going to do is we're going to put all our spacers, in this instance, underneath

02:33the stem, so we've got two 10s, two 5s, so 30mm, no more than that.

02:41No bike should ever come supplied with more than that anyway, really, especially with

02:44a carbon steerer, and we must always ensure that there's only a couple of mm gap between

02:57the top of the steerer tube and the edge of the stem.

03:01Any more and you'll again be putting too much stress on the steerer tube, which could

03:06cause it to fail, which would obviously be horrible.

03:10That gap there is absolutely necessary in order to take the recess here on the top cap

03:19and to give a little bit of adjustment so as we tighten this preload bolt, there's enough

03:25space for everything to compress.

03:27If the steerer was flush with the top of the stem, it wouldn't go anywhere and you'd never

03:31be able to adjust your headset properly.

03:34So we're just going to nip this bolt up, check that everything's straight.

03:43You might want to do that on the floor just to get it spot on.

03:49And then it's literally finger and thumb, and that should leave the bearings turning

03:55nice and smoothly with no play.

03:59Once that's done, we just need to re-tighten the stem, we're just going to nip that up

04:08and then we're just going to finish that off with a torque wrench.

04:11Most stems will have a torque setting on them, in this case it's 8Nm, so set your torque

04:18wrench appropriately and tighten away.

04:26And that's that, the stem's been raised.

04:30It's a good idea just to do some final checks before you go out on the road, to double check

04:36that adjustment of your headset so everything should be feeling nice and smooth.

04:41And if you grab the bars and try and flex them side to side, then you should feel no

04:47play at all.

04:50And then, just to make sure, stick the front wheel between your legs, try and move the

04:57stem.

04:58If it's all torqued up correctly, it shouldn't move, but it's worth checking.

05:03So that's it, we're all done, ready to go out and hit the road.

05:06Thanks for watching, see you next time.

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