I'm OK with the theory of how to bang it in...... But do I have to rest the bottom of the steerer on something rather than bang through the suspension - I assume so?
Hold the steerer in a vice if you have one (use a bit of pipe lagging for protection/padding)
Personally I would be very wary of putting the steerer in a vice as it would be all to easy to ovalise it if alloy- however I bow to others experience!
For the first one I fitted I placed a piece of hardwood on a bench/tabletop top with G clamp, put the underside of the crown/steerer joint against that.
For the second (cos I found the first too scary although it did work) I found a length of threaded bar that fitted the nut, made up a thick hardwood disk that fitted under the steerer tube, and wound it in with a socket then a ratchet spanner- worked a treat and no thumping on a new fork
I just clamped mine in my park workstand, seemed to work ok
I don't know if there's a 'proper' way to do it, but you don't have to whack it hard. I think I just rested the drop-out on the top of my feet to avoid chipping them and tapped the nut down.
As PJay said - just make sure you have put it on something relatively soft (and not a concrete floor 😳 )
I just put it on a mat to protect the dropouts. You shouldn't need to hit it that hard.
i upended a piece of 2x2 that was longer than my lowers, did the trick lovely.
There's a tool made by Lifu that you can get for about £10, it's a joy to use.
I hate SFN - I would get a carbon bung or a hope head doctor after past experience of steerer tube scoring 🙁 But each to their own 🙂 we use SFN as they are what we have always used and they are really cheap 🙂