I’m trying to rebuild two old bikes, and need to remove the handlebars & stems. These are both very old bikes (used as commuters), probably 20-30 years old. One is a Raleigh Record, the other I can’t tell.
The stems are L-shaped, and insert into the headset. I can loosen the headset hardware so that I can begin to pull the frame up the stem/headset/fork assembly. BUT, I cannot remove the stem from the headset assembly.
I hope I have the terms right. In the end, I need to take off both handlebars/stems - the forks I don’t want to change.
Any advice/suggestions? Or good websites? I don’t see anything quite useful on parktool, sheldon brown’s site, or jim langley’s site, as well as other google results.
I assume this is a threaded headset (i.e. The headet actually screws onto the fork) So you have loosened up the bolt that goes down the center of the headset and probably lossened up the headset itself freeing the fork. That long bolt screws into a compression fitting inside the fork. This compression fitting is metal and most likely has rusted and is seized inside the fork.
Spray some WD40 down there and remove the bolt completely. After the bolt is removed just unscrew (lefty loosy i.e. counterclockwise) the headset retaining bolts off completely. Watch out the once the fork is completely dislodged you will most likely have exposed bearings and if not still packed in grease will fall all over the place.
It’s ok if the compression plug stays in there, I am assuming that you will reuse the stems as 1 inch threaded stems aren’t as widely available as threadless. I would recommend though that you remove it (just stick something wooden in the fork and hit it with a mallet and the compression plug will just pop out the bottom of the fork. or vice cersi) Clean the compression plug if it’s salvagable and get a bore brush to clean out the inside of the fork.