I’m after some advice please.

I’ve built up an old (2000) XS (14 inch) Trek 6500 WSD frame http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?Year=2000&Brand=Trek&Model=6500+WSD&Type=bike so my wife can try mountain biking.

I’ve replaced the original Judy XC with some Reba SL forks, the steerer on the Judy’s is considerably (80mm)shorter than the Reba’s. I’d like to avoid cutting the reba’s steerer by that much so that if my wife decides she’s not into mountain biking (or if she decides she loves it and we invest in a new bike) we can transfer the forks.

If I cut the reba by about 30mm, use some extra spacers and use a reversible stem I can achieve the same bar height relative to the top tube; apart from looking a little odd I don’t think this will have any impact on steering? Anyone disagree or have a more elegant solution?

I’d build it with lots of spacers and let her ride it for a while. You might you need to tweak the stem height anyway.

Why not just put extra spacers on top of the stem. It’s how my rode bike is running right now.

They’re both simpler (and therefore better) solutions but isn’t 80mm worth of spacers a little too much?

Or are you saying cut by 30mm and have 50mm of spacers?

I chose 30mm as that will give me a steerer tube length of about 200mm which hopefully leaves me with a fighting chance that the forks will still fit the majority of frames?

Spacers on top of the stem make no difference to strength or stiffness. Once the heatset in preloaded and the stem bolts tightened, you don’t actually need the top cap or the spacers for it to work. Leave them on though so as not to punch circles out of the body in the even of a crash.

tallie – Member
They’re both simpler (and therefore better) solutions but isn’t 80mm worth of spacers a little too much?

Or are you saying cut by 30mm and have 50mm of spacers?That. As you say, it leaves you with a decent length of steerer tube should you have to re-sell.

Personally I would never cut a steerer below 200mm.

Thanks Gents – very useful.