Cracked steerer? :-(

Just stripped the forks for service and installing a new dual flow rebound, and spotted this…

Looks like a crack under magnification. Dead? Need to whip the crown race off and look how far down it goes.

If it is a crack as you believe it to be then I would not be using it. Given the likely stress applied to that area I would not feel comfortable riding with it. Can you see from the inside of the steerer? Is it a mark from when the crown race was installed?

On laptop now so can embed images.
Crown race off and there seems to be 2 of them! Crown race only installed last week as changed frames and i’m pretty sure these weren’t there then.

Looks a bit like gouges, no marks on the other side but i can’t see what would have gouged them installing the crown race everything was clean and the race went on with fingers.

Wonder if Rockshox will look at a warranty for OEM forks nearly 2 years old?

It looks like a mark from fitting a burred crown race (or the tool itself even?) as it’s only that lower 5-10mm that’s at crown-race tolerance. But you can check if that’s the case easily enough. Steerer’s pretty thick down there so may not be a concern.

I’d be as/more worried by a crown race that went on by hand tbh?

Stripped right back now so had a good look under a 10x lens, looks like there are 2 gouges and it’s hard to tell but both look to have a hairline crack in them, but it might just be the shadow of the gouge.

I’m sure i’d have noticed this when fitting the crown race if they were there last week. No grit or anything in the race or round the bottom of steerer which might have caused the groove. Bike was reassembled so I could trim cables and set everything up, but not ridden as the forks needed servicing first.

Anybody seen similar before? Could these have been caused by over tightening the star nut and putting too much preload on the bearings? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t overtightened as I only nipped it up until all play was out of the headset, but i’m struggling to see what’s caused it.

I did fit the wrong crown race first (too many spare headsets floating around…) which was very tight to get on, but did go on. Took it off when I realised and the correct crown race went on, this time fingers were enough to get it home. Could the first race being too tight have caused it? My only thought could be it was an undersized crown race, but anything too small would surely not have gone on.

Any thoughts from the hive mind?

I can’t see how anything but a burred race could do that tbh, there’s often a cause you miss but the headset preload can’t do it and it looks like it’s only marked it at the point where it goes from 28.6mm OD to the crown race at ~30mm. Not clear from the pics, but looks like the mark ends just above the crown, not at it? if so, almost certainly caused by the crown race or a fitting tool.

can you see anything from underneath ?

Tool was a taped screwdriver tapped round the race 🙂
Always used this method and never had a problem before! Not sure if the 2nd race going on by hand should be a concern – didn’t go on exactly easily and i’m a climber so pretty strong fingers. It felt pretty well on when i took it off earlier.

The race that’s been on there for the past 12 months was a split 1.5″ reducer race – wondering if the split race might cause this issue to appear?

Both marks go down below the top of the crown race – they’re probably 3mm down from the top. Can’t see anything from underneath.

Closer inspection of the crown race and i’ve found a burr half way down. Looks like a manufacturing fault – it’s like a pinhead. Specialized put it on first time round about 2 years ago so they probably should have checked first, but it’s been on and off twice and there are 2 gouges which makes sense, must have missed the first one.

So take a file to inside of race, refit and ride? Are there likely to be issues, stress risers etc – will it break and kill me!

Had a search but couldn’t find anything similar, but did find this gem…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/conned-repairing-badly-gouged-steerer-that-is-too-loose-for-a-crown-race

Are there likely to be issues, stress risers etc

Don’t quote me on this / I’m not saying you should ride it, but if it were mine I’d not be too worried, since the bending stresses there are at 90 degrees to the mark and the steerer is thick-walled there. If it were a radial groove I’d be worried, but the mark’s been there since you’ve had the forks by the sound of it. Maybe get a better-informed opinion though..

BTW an old headset cup (frame-insert bit facing down) makes a better race-drift for 1 1/8″ forks than a screwdriver )

I looked at the thread nickdavies posted up there and somewhere in it I found this comedy gem:

hora – Member

Del-(personal experience) I wont buy anymore secondhand forks from STW. Not a chance.
Posted 3 years ago # Report-Post

😆

will be fine, you used to replace steerers with boiling water,