Changed forks over but the steerer tube is slightly too short, The top of steerer is sitting just under top bolt on stem but if I tighten just the top bolt it feels tight so with both tight hopefully it will be o.k ?

I’ve run similar for years.

Road bike – possibly.

Mountain bike – probably not.

Unless you don’t like your teeth or wear a full facer all the time.

The max I’d do is 5mm and make sure both bolts clamped properly.

This topic was here a few weeks back. I think the consensus was the steerer needs to be pretty close to the bolt.

IMHO – Not safe in that pic.

Why have you emptied your nose in to your star-nut?

PS – That doesn’t look safe to me.

I wouldn’t risk it. As above 5mm max for me. But then I am a bit of a bifter.

wouldn’t fancy it. got a lower stack height stem?

Find some tube thats the same diameter (old steerer of something), cut it to the length rquired and shim it, worked for me untill I got some new forks…. though obviously i can’t recommend anyboday else to try it….

Ive ridden worse than that in the past wouldnt worry me at all

But i wouldnt advocate it nor would i hve ever sent a bike out the shop to be ridden like that

Read into that what you will 😉

People fixate a little on where the bolt is. You could stick a single bolt stem on that, a Truvativ Team or similiar, and it’ll probably be below the cut, and probably no more secure.

Personally I’d be getting it all as low as possible- lower stack headset or stem if that’s an option. But if not, yeah, I’d ride it. The bottom bolt should offer perfectly good retention, the top will still offer some as well, and it’s not a work-or-die situation, if it does loosen you should become aware of it before it’s dangerous. Some risk of damaging the steerer perhaps.

that seems a little low for me personally. A few mm is fine but that looks like half your stem is off the steerer
I would prefer a different stem tbh as suggested above though I suspect it would work fine
The top bolt holds everything in compression so it is just there to allow you to turn – what could possibly go wrong 😉

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG5Qk-jB0D4[/video]

Personally, I’d shove one of these in there:

£11, Job done. Teeth saved. (It works on a 1 1/8 steerer).

Cheers for all the replys, Someone mentiones it only looks halfway up the stem but its further up than that here is a better pic the top of steerer is 9mm from top of stem

i would ride that tbh and would not do much with that top bolt

A thompson would Likely clamp up fine if you have the pennies

It looks like a world of horror from that angle TBH 😯

Why is it full of pollen?

Its just crap off the inside of the steerer where I have wiped the grease off camera makes it look filthy but its not that bad honest 🙂

I wouldn’t ride a bike with the stem like that. Not a chance.

Perfectly fine IMO, carry on 🙂

I wouldn’t ride it.
Loosen the bottom bolt and see just how much work the top bolt is really doing.

Its just crap off the inside of the steerer where I have wiped the grease off camera

Why did you grease the camera?

What no-eyed-deer said. I use something similar by BBB on my HT and think it’s worth the money for that little bit of assurance.

Edit – weird, why didn’t that link work?

Why’ve you emptied a pack of tomato cuppa soup into the steerer – how’s that going to help things?!

I wouldn’t ride it. Loosen the bottom bolt and see just how much work the top bolt is really doing

I already did that as I said in my origional post its tight cant move it

Try a Ragley stubbing stem for a lower stack…

why bother asking, youre going to ride it anyway.

What no-eyed-deer said. I use on my HT and think it’s worth the money for that little bit of assurance.

Cheers to you and no eyed deer will order one just to be on safe side 🙂

What’s with the ginger filings?

must have been eating a bag wotsits while thinking about what to do next

Crikey, one of my bikes is like that, I ride it as hard as I can, never had an issue, not really considered it tbh…

Put a crank brothers headset in as they have a really low stack height so it will bring it all a lot closer and you can pick them up for £25 ish, a lot better than one of them extenders

Crack Bros?? Hmmm

That looks ok to me. See worse.

bland – Member

Put a crank brothers headset in as they have a really low stack height so it will bring it all a lot closer and you can pick them up for £25 ish, a lot better than one of them extenders
Make sure you keep the receipt for the inevitable warranty return. I’d considered one of those headsets and discounted it after reading the opinions of those who had used one.

It’s your face as they say

Not necessarily. It could be your teeth and skull as well…..