Merckx EM525 Disc Endurance - fork crown issue
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 9:58 pm
hey everyone,
so i recently purchased a Merckx EM525 Disc Endurance frameset from Merlin cycles. i contacted both Merlin and Merckx Cycles already, but am waiting for a reply. in the meantime, i am wondering if anyone can help shine some light on the below issue (basically copied and pasted the email i sent them):
i finally have all the pieces and was getting ready to build the bike up today when i came across a strange problem. once i put on the stem and spacers and tighten the headset to take out any slack in the headset, the fork no longer turns smoothly: i can feel a lot of friction and resistance. this in itself is not abnormal, and often happens, so i added a thin washer between the dust cap and the compression ring as that often solves the problem when the fork binds like that, but i still had the same problem: once the littlest amount of pressure was put on the headset by tightening the top cap, the fork no longer turned smoothly on the headset bearings. i added another thin washer, thus making it 2, but the fork still did not turn freely. i added up to 5 washers but nothing helped.
after faffing around another 30 minutes, what i noticed is that the EM525 disc endurance model has a plastic thing on the fork crown which creates some kind of platform for the lower part of the headtube to rest on (check out a photo online of the frameset and you will see what i mean (see attached photo i found on the internet)). what seems to happen is the rear "shoulders" (because the rear of it is indeed pointed effectively making two "shoulders" at the rear of the fork, one on each side) of this plastic fork crown attachment create friction against the underside of the down tube right behind the head tube. it is the strangest thing. not just strange, but really dumb as i cannot get the fork to sit and turn properly in the headtube because these shoulders stick up and rub against the underside of the down tube....
can you please help me figure out what to do?
thank you
---
so... has anyone built up the Merckx EM525 Disc endurance frameset and had any issues? or successes? this is very strange. for a 'premium' frameset to have this plastic thing that binds and rubs against the frame as an integral part of the frameset?
thanks,
o
so i recently purchased a Merckx EM525 Disc Endurance frameset from Merlin cycles. i contacted both Merlin and Merckx Cycles already, but am waiting for a reply. in the meantime, i am wondering if anyone can help shine some light on the below issue (basically copied and pasted the email i sent them):
i finally have all the pieces and was getting ready to build the bike up today when i came across a strange problem. once i put on the stem and spacers and tighten the headset to take out any slack in the headset, the fork no longer turns smoothly: i can feel a lot of friction and resistance. this in itself is not abnormal, and often happens, so i added a thin washer between the dust cap and the compression ring as that often solves the problem when the fork binds like that, but i still had the same problem: once the littlest amount of pressure was put on the headset by tightening the top cap, the fork no longer turned smoothly on the headset bearings. i added another thin washer, thus making it 2, but the fork still did not turn freely. i added up to 5 washers but nothing helped.
after faffing around another 30 minutes, what i noticed is that the EM525 disc endurance model has a plastic thing on the fork crown which creates some kind of platform for the lower part of the headtube to rest on (check out a photo online of the frameset and you will see what i mean (see attached photo i found on the internet)). what seems to happen is the rear "shoulders" (because the rear of it is indeed pointed effectively making two "shoulders" at the rear of the fork, one on each side) of this plastic fork crown attachment create friction against the underside of the down tube right behind the head tube. it is the strangest thing. not just strange, but really dumb as i cannot get the fork to sit and turn properly in the headtube because these shoulders stick up and rub against the underside of the down tube....
can you please help me figure out what to do?
thank you
---
so... has anyone built up the Merckx EM525 Disc endurance frameset and had any issues? or successes? this is very strange. for a 'premium' frameset to have this plastic thing that binds and rubs against the frame as an integral part of the frameset?
thanks,
o