The spacers on my steerer are about 2mm above the top of the steerer, so the top cap is sitting on the top spacer, rather than the top of the steerer.

Does that make sense?! Is this a 'bad thing'? Can I file down one of the spacers, or should I go to my LBS and get a spacer which fits properly?

TIA…

the top cap isnt supposed to sit on the steerer. it wouldnt be able to tension the headset correctly if it was…

Errrm, isn't the top cap supposed to bear on the spacer? That's what the spacers are for…

Sounds like you've got it spot on mate!

So is my current setup OK? It creaked horribly when I tightened it all up…

EDIT – Cheers, looks like I should be OK then – I'm glad as I didn't want to replace my nice, shiny, carbon spacers 🙂

It creaked horribly when I tightened it all up…

😯 you are only tightening the top cap until you've taken the play out of the headset, aren't you?

Carbon spacers on the other hand, aren't great.

meant to do that( be above to pinch) would be woried about creaking carbon anywhere though

Carbon spacers on the other hand, aren't great

why not ?

Yup – just pinched up…

nickc – Member
Carbon spacers on the other hand, aren't great

why not ?

+1….. Surely they're just oversized washers?

Cheap ones are cut from a tube, a sound structure, into something that's it wasn't designed to be. They can crush. Sometimes they're not even flat.

No….I'm afraid your stem is going to kill you!

right now it's plotting with your saddle and they'll slash the brake cables when you are not looking and you'll die in a big red smear down the side of a mountain.

They'll then collect the life insurance and live a life of luxury with an exotic carbon full susser and no one will ever know………..
Except Quincy M.E.

Interesting theory nickc – isn't a shorter, squatter tube (spacer) going to be stronger than a long one though? Or is it the case that there's just not enough mass to hold up under pressure?

tazzy – brakes are not necessary with my skillz.

Cheap ones are cut from a tube, a sound structure, into something that's it wasn't designed to be. They can crush. Sometimes they're not even flat.

Eh? But all you're using them for is preload – if they are going to crush, surely it's going to be under the initial preload. And surely you shouldn't be putting that much pressure on it, you're only making sure the bearings are properly held together.

It's like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Spacers need to have exactly parallel faces, otherwise obviously the steerer will move, and once that happens then it'll move more, and off cuts of carbon tube will crush more easily than a metal spacer will. Now, I'm not suggesting that all carbon spacers are made like this, and generally I'm pretty pro carbon, but lots are, and seeing as the front end of the bike relies on the stem/steerer interface being tight and secure, then it's one place personally, where I'd have metal.

The one above the stem will only be subject to pre-load, the ones underneath will take all the battering and leverage the fork can muster. That said, and personally speaking, i've never seen a failure and am happy with the ones I was given.

Once you've tightened the pinch bolts on your stem any spacers above the stem are irrelevant and any below aren't going to cause you any problems. I don't know what sort of failure of a carbon spacer you're expecting, but the worst that can happen is the stresses deform one a tiny bit and you get some play in you headset. You could always then tighten your headset.

The most prudent approach to headset tightness would be to get a frame/stem/bar combination that actually fits you and only run spacers abover the stem.

Incidentally at Laggan Wolftrax on sunday there was a woman doing the Orange descent uplift thingy on a Heckler with about 6 inches of spacers between stem and headset, all carbon. Hilarious.

My "cheap" carbon spacers are holding up very nicely. Not really cheap as they were actually free. I don't even know where I got them from.
I used one to install a crown race once, before I had the proper size tube, bloody strong it was -took a hell of a beating. I don't use that one as a spacer now though.

The carbon spacer shouldn't be under any significant load. It is the stem that holds/grips the steerer. Even if for whatever reason the carbon spacer did spontaneously combust nothing bad would happen anyway. Unless you didn't tighten your stem of course.

Well, if the spacer somehow snapped (or spontaneously combusted!) and broke open it would no longer be loading the headset, so presumably you'd get a fairly dramatic loss of bearing tension in the headset. I suppose that could damage the headset (and possibly the frame?) and a very loose headset is alarming from a control point of view. But I agree, I can't really see how the spacer is going to get out of the tensioned stack, even if it did actually break.

Have you seen this probelme actually come home to roost Nick, or is it a precaution?

The spacer above the stem are not important after the topcap has taken the up the slack in the headset system/loaded the bearings. Once the stem is tightened you could remove the topcap and spacers and ride without. If the spacers collapsed under the headset that would be a problem as they are under constant load and are important to keep the compression in the headset/nearing stack.

The squeaking coul be comming from the stem which is eiather dirty or too loose or dirt or movement in the spacer stack under the stem IME. Also grease teh thread on the topcap bolt – squeaks can come from doing to top bolt up (esp too tightly) or from the star fangled nut moving in the stearer tube?

It creaked horribly when I tightened it all up…

Call me paranoid but when carbon creaks horribly I get nervous.
I agree the risk is low but for the low cost involved of replacement and the near nill weight saving it would be metal for me personally.

The risk is nil, if you have tightened your stem properly.

Yep, seen frayed carbon spacers that weren't flat, that was the cause of a continually loosening headset/stem. (although to be fair, it was on a pretty long stack under the stem). I'd be happy with carbon spacers above the stem, as people suggest they're not under any load.

Look, I'm sure they're probably fine, and I'm just being over pessimistic, but off cuts of goodness-knows-what carbon tube cut up and sold as spacers to my mind is a issue that I'd not be happy about in this particular application.

Fairy nuff. I have alu ones, because they come in gold. 🙂

tart

you need reinforced steel spacers with your new found gnarliness nick

hows life under the bridge?

My stem on the other hand might well kill me. It's a Syntace F99 stem which is quite flexy in torsion (but not otherwise) but I'm using an Easton carbon XC riser on it and I can't tell if it's reinforced for the 4 bolt stem.. uh oh.. death here I come.

why hasn't anyone warned the OP about being killed by carbon filaments getting into his blood stream from the failing carbon spacers? We all know once they work their way into his heart its fatal.
So no your stem wont kill you your spacers will.