[mrmack]

Hello everyone.

I just purchased and put together a Rocky Mountain Soul.

I haven't put a bike together since I was 15 (20 years ago). =)

I've ridden it around pretty hard (for me anyway) and everything seems really tight and stable. The Soul seems like a really nice bike but it's also my first mountain bike so I don't really have anything to compare it to.

The only thing I had trouble figuring out was these 4 rings and top bolt that go on the neck.

Can someone look at these pictures and tell me if I did this right?

These are the 4 rings.
http://www.mcalister.cc/pics/pic2.jpg

Does this look right to you guys?

I'm guessing that they are used to elevate the height of the handlebars.
I put 3 rings on the bottom and 1 on the top and tightened up the top bolt but;

I can't remember what this top bolt is even used for.
http://www.mcalister.cc/pics/pic1.jpg

Can someone enlighten me on this setup?

 

[mrmack]

YouTube FTW!

 

[FR4life.]

Its ok to have a spacer on top of the stem, depending on how high you want your bars to be.

 

[Timekiller]

Top bolt is for bearing preload, you set that before tightening the stem. You must set it properly, do not over tighten it.

 

[jzrider]

The top bolt is basically just used to hold everything tight while you tighten the 2 bolts on the stem. Your spacers are fine. It doesn't matter whats on the top or the bottom you just need the steer tube about 1/32 of an inch below the top ring or stem, depending what's on top.

To tighten:
Loosen the side bolts all the way. Tighten the top bolt so that your wheel still flops side to side and so there is no play in the headset. Do not over tighten, you can pull out the star nut in the steer tube.

After you have it at the right tightness, make sure your wheel is straight, tighten the side bolts to the specified torque (whatever, just make sure they are tight but don't strip).

After this you could remove the top bolt and the steer tube cover, however I wouldn't recommend that but it does nothing in terms of holding things together.

Good luck.

WhereWeRide - Find Trials

 

[Tweety]

What they said, but it looks like you have too much of a gap between the headset and the lower spacer. Make sure to tighten the top bolt prior to the stem bold.

 

[jzrider]

ooks like you have too much of a gap

Good point Tweety, I didn't even notice that. What is all that space?