Just had the forks off my road bike to swap in the new ones. On taking a look I realised they’ve got a carbon steerer (they were cheap on PX I wasn’t too interested on exact specs). The obvious concerns about them exploding and taking half of Europe with them, is there anything I need to be careful of? Do I cut them with a normal hacksaw and do I just bash the SFN in the same way as usual (bolt, hammer, off we go).

NO star fangled nut! use a bung type wedge,
As for cutting a fine toothed hacksaw i believe and DO NOT breathe the dust.
carbon steerers aren’t unusual on pricier road bikes these days, If done right should be no worse than a bonded Aluminium steerer.

No need for hand wringing; 32 tpi hacksaw blade, but use a carbon steerer bung rather than a sfn. Oh, a try not to breath in the dust.

Edit – too slow…..

No SFN.. balls. Trip to the LBS to try to explain in French what the hell I’m talking about. Should be fun.

if you need it in french

this may help

Look forks install guide

It does have, unsurprisingly, a chapter in french

NO NO NO star fangled nut!
Can’t emphasise that enough! Put some leccy tape where you’re cutting to avoid splintering and use a high tpi blade (new). Slowly and let the saw do the work.
Use an expander wedge instead of an SFN – something like this: http://www.mcconveycycles.com/store/product/5568/m-part-carbon-wedge/

A “bouchon de compression” and an “expandeur”. Thanks very much.

There’s an LBS run by a former pro roadie in the area so he’s probably a better bet than the local equivalent of Halfords (although their bike selection is really good for a car stuff shop).

Now the next question is whether I *ahem* “slam that stem” or not 😉