my options are, me + hacksaw - knowledge //// LBS + tools + monies.
what should i do? if you feel i can go it alone, some advice guidance would be ideal 😀
once this is done I will reward your friday afternoon with my built up orange cotic soul!!
If you can't get hold of a plumber's pipe cutter, measure (3 times) where the cut needs to be, marking all the way round in pencil/felt tip. Then make the slightest cut all the way round with the hacksaw and keep cutting/rotating until the cut starts to form, nice and straight. Then keep going until it's done. There's no harm in doing a trial cut about an inch higher than where you need it to get a feel for it.
If you are at all not confident, LBS.
FWIW I have used a pipe cutter several times, including on steel steerers. You just have to take a lot of time, and clean up the cut surface afterwards.
I think hacksaw is the recommended route though, but you have to have a sturdy work surface and reliable method of clamping.
get a plumbers piping cutter - very easy job to do. measure twice cut once!
It's not difficult. Loads of people on here have managed!
Advice?
Take your time.
Most of all, measure twice, cut once.
I like to run some tape around the steerer then make three cuts 120 degrees apart and then file to finish. Easy way to avoid cutting a slope on the steerer.
EDIT: (damn these slow fat fingers, I was first when I started typing).
If you can measure and cut a tube you'll be fine.
Measure it twice.
measure 3 times cut once or cut slightly longer and trim back if really scared. Pop in vice. Use old head set spacer as a guide up against the jaws of the vice horizontally. File off any burs. Peasy. If you havent got a vice you may struggle holding it between your knees.
cut a couple of cm off the top, get a feel for the job
(I use 2 old stems as a hacksaw guide)
I always leave mine long at 1st, in case I need lots of spacers to fit right or maybe don't like the fork & need to resell (I just shove an old tennis ball over the sticky-out top of the steerer)
measure from the fork crown up, not the top of the steerer down.
easiest way is to assemble everything on the bike with a spacer or two and the stem etc then mark with a black marker pen at the top of the steerer all the way round. Cut 5mm below that mark.
I clamp them in my workstand. Really should get a bench vice but it does the job!
5 inch grinder with a 1mm slit disk !!
cuts straight and quickly with minimal clean up if you know what you are doing
I might have to do this at the weekend (although with a cheaper set of steel Inbred forks) and was just planning to position an old stem at the appropriate height on the steerer (e.g. actually in the frame with the correct steerer fitted then the spare one on top to equate to spacers) and then just cut across using that as a guide. Is that a particularily bad idea?
you need to have the top of the steerer about 5mm below the top of the stem to allow the top cap/sfn to tighten the bearings up properly.
so what your all saying i will be fine just so long as i measure just the once! 🙄
also might be a daft question... but at some point i will be wanting to replace my titec hell bent stem which i swiped from my donor bike. am i right in saying the height of stems are pretty much universal, so i can just plonk on a new one with the correct amount of steerer column remaining?
also i am just ****ting down the star fangled nut to the correct height, good or bad? ideally what height should i **** it down to?!
look at how much steerer coloumn i will be removing!!!
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oh i cannot sat t**t, sorry i mean whack!
For some reason the sum of all the issues with that bike add up to it being one of the ugliest machines I've ever seen! I think it's the combination of low/forward saddle and exceptionally high front end.
about 15mm into the steerer tube i reckon...
epic steve, that bike was bought with the intention of it being cut! those components just short off 800 pounds, i win!!
mrcrusher, so i am safe to hammer it down into the column?
unless you're about to cut through the sfn I'd leave it as is and then wack it out the end of the bit you cut off and refit to the now, shorter steerer.
epic steve, that bike was bought with the intention of it being cut! those components just short off 800 pounds, i win!!
Don't know about that mate - this is my sub £800 bike (mostly sourced from the classifieds here):
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just screw a stem cap bolt in and TAP! it into place - or if you can wait get a star nut setter its a lot less of a faf.
EDIT - i see what you mena now. yeah i just whacked my old one down into the steerer. no issues at all. its just wedged in so it doesnt rattle about or owt
I think hacksaw is the recommended route though, but you have to have a sturdy work surface and reliable method of clamping.
I cut my steerer with a junior hacksaw, work surface was a kitchen chair with a towel on it, reliable method of clamping was my knee 😉