Just looked at the inside of my steerer tube and its pretty scored from the starnut cutting into the alloy. Luckily the scoring is only a cm or so down, and actually below top of my stem so not going to cause a snapage. Is this normal?

Whilst I’m not usually overly cack handed when it comes to this kind of thing, I do remember once trying to tighten the headset far more than I thought I needed to to take out play, didn’t use brute force but tightened it until I couldn’t turn it without putting in effot, at this point I realised something was wrong…turned out it was a problem with the hub…oops.

I did wonder if its possible to crack a steerer though overtightening a starnut? Mine looks fine but tempted to give it a closer inspection. I would have thought the bearings would have seized far before the steerer cracked?

It’s normal.

Should be fine. Over tightening is far more likely to crush the headset bearings than damage the steerer anyway.

phew….

Kenny thats what I thought. Strangely the bearings still turned fine even though the bolt was as tight as it would go without forcing it…

Steerer looks fine, now all I have to do is remove the old starnut

Just bang it down a bit