Headset wobble after tightening I own a Cannondale Super Six 105 (Ultegra now) Carbon 2012 bike and I can't stop the wobble in the headset.  If I tighten down the top cap (with 6mm hex) I can get rid of the wobble (hands on the drops holding brakes - headset has a fair bit of play) but I cannot move the wheels freely with the handlebars.  

I stripped it down, cleaned it and assembled it again but its still wobbly after tightening the inner 5mm allen key.

Do I need a new headset  ? It's KP044 I think.

The bearings move around nice and easy but the compression ring feels very rough to touch.

The bike is 4 years old, 30,000+km cycled on it, I'm not sure whats wrong - 

(1) I didn't tighten properly 
(2) headset needs replacement or 
(3) bike is old and something wrong with frame.  

Would a new KP044 fix it for me or could the bike be kaput ? Also if I cycle on (1-2 weeks) with a wobble will it do damage to the frame ?

Some pictures








I don't know if the pictures are much of a help but everything is there except a bit of a rough corner feel.
It sounds as through you loosened the compression nut inside your carbon steer tube, which you should not have done.  That bolt (the 5mm inside) should be tightened once during installation and is not touched for a headset adjustment (or than to perhaps check it is still tight).  When you loosened that bolt, you made it so that the top cap will simply pull the compression nut up, rather than pull the fork and compress the headset bearings.  Tighten the interior (the 5 mm inside) compression nut in place, then restart your headset adjustment process and hope that you haven't damaged the headset by riding it improperly adjusted.



By comparison, a fork with a metal steer tube will generally use a star nut.


These are hammered into place and will not move up.  The metal wings cut into the tube and allow the top cap to compress the headset.  This setup is inappropriate for a carbon steertube since it damages the carbon.