What I’ve come to realise about Larry vs Harry is their versatility in becoming whatever type of cargo bike you want. Many other competitors don’t offer the same level of adaptation that a Larry vs Harry does. I chose a Larry vs Harry mainly as one of the cheaper options to enter the cargo bike market but also just because it works really well to carry kids but also to carry lots of other things, regardless of the size. Many other cargo bikes have fixed boxes or don’t offer a flatbed to be able to adapt. An L v H is a bit of an ongoing project bike that can be slowly adapted to suit your needs.
One of the first things I noticed when I picked up the bike was the steering wobble. Descending anything above 20mph and your steering starts to shake. So I quickly started to research solutions around the problem. L v H offers a regular steering damper in the same fashion as motorcycles have, a small hydraulic piston that prevents this from happening. This solution seemed clunky though. In doing a bit more research I discovered in the Facebook Bullitt Universe group that there was another solution. Other members had modified existing parts in order to fit a Cane Creek ViscoSet. So without further do, I decided to investigate how I could do the same.
**Disclaimer** I take no responsibility for the modifications you make to your LvH, this wasn’t a straightforward journey and I needed to do a few refinements to make the headset sit properly which I’ll go into further in the post. That said if you already maintain your bike and have changed a headset before this should be relatively straightforward!
I also can’t take credit for any of the mechanics of this – Ittai Wille helped me along the way with measurements and any questions I had, so big shout out to him for this. I’m merely making this accessible to others.
Here we go…
I’ve got a 2019 Larry vs HarryEBullitt – this is the model headset you need Cane Creek Viscoset ZS44/28.6
Once you received the new headset, this is where the modifications will need to be executed. Essentially you need to take the existing Front cone and modify it to fit the new headset. You can use the existing cone but I decided to buy a new one just in case anything went wrong and also so I could still use my bike whilst the modifications were being done.
Here are the measurements to ensure the cone fits the headset. I took mine too a local fabricator to have this done as I don’t own the machinery needed to make these changes.
This is what you’re looking to achieve.
In order to get the cone to work with the new headset, you need a piece of 1 1/8th steerer that will prevent the headset from becoming loose.
It should be a tight fit. Be sure to sand down the edges to prevent damaging any seals on the headset.
**Once I’d installed the headset, for some reason the washer was too proud and prevent the cone from sitting in the headset so I had to sand down the original 1-1/8th washer, just be wary of this, it wasn’t a difficult thing to do but you want it so the cone sits in the headset as seen above.**
Installing the headset
Remove the steering arm bolt as you will need to remove the forks
Remove the bolt and cone which will drop the forks from the frame.
Using a headset removal tool, remove the top headset.
Apply some grease and using a headset press, install the new headset.
Insert the forks and apply the headset cone with washer. This is where you might need to tweak the washer to ensure the cone sits flush.
This is where you need to do a little bit of tweaking to ensure the steering column is tight but also moves without friction. If you tighten the allan bolt too tight the steering column will be heavy and won’t move freely.
The allan bolt doesn’t need to be tight, 1-2mn at most, the cone can then tighten adequately preventing the headset from coming loose.
Done! Reinstall the steering arm and jobs a good’en! No more steering shake.
Any questions, feel free to drop me a message.