the steerer tube on my current forks on my mtb is approx 180mm in length, I use 2 spacers (1x5mm & 1x3mm) to space things out under my headset and all fits in fine.
now, I want to fit another set of forks on this same frame. The steerer on these forks measures approx 200mm in length. I DON’T want to cut down these forks (incase I want to fit them on another of my bikes at some point in the future)…I also do not want to fit too many spacers.
so, my question is how can I fit these forks without cutting them down or using too many spacers???????
my headset is a hope FR model, stem also hope FR.
I seem to recall seeing roadbikes that have the steerer tube sticking all the way thru the headset, with what looks like spacers above the headset….anyone know??? ❓
+1 for just leaving spacers above the stem. I run my Allez with 40mm of spacers above, it looks absolutely shite, but I’ll probably sell the bike at some point and there’s every chance the new owner won’t want it ‘slammed’.
Stick spacers above the stem, and maybe also use a ‘deeper’ stem to take the edge off a bit (so there is a bit less exposed material to mangle yourself on; should you come to grief whilst going off, over the front).
I’ve got something similar on the go, and to keep it nice and subtle (in keeping with the bike), I’ve gone for 20mm of alternating (5mm) pink and (5mm) black spacers. 😉
If you have decent eyesight … you might just make it out in this shot.
… or if that’s not your thing, maybe have a look a the Point-One Time Capsule:(CRC) as an alternative, it’s [only] a stack of spacers and a top-cap, but it’s machined into a nice neat err … capsule.
Thinking about it, almost everything I ride has at least a couple of mm of spacers above the stem.
pretty sure all bikes have steerers sticking through the headset 😉
What you need to remember is most important factor is the bars in the right place. If your bike has a short head tube/low stack headset then to get the bars at the same point as your other bikes (assuming it is right on those bikes) then you need to put spacers under the stem. I have used a conical carbon fibre spacer on top of my headset top cap on my carbon 456 to make the stack of spacers look less obvious. I also have a small spacer on top of the stem to get the bars where I want them.
Try the spacers in different positions and see where feels best – then deal with the aesthetics. If you end up having lots below the stem I find mixing it up with a conical spacer and maybe a couple of fancy machined ones colour coded to another part of the bike looks good breaking up the stack of black/carbon spacers.
No issue. Had 200mm steerer on one pair of forks with hardly anything above stem. New bike had 20mm less head tube but on new forks did not want to cut them down past 200.. 20mm above stem is no big deal.
I always have at least one spacer above the stem. Means the stem clamps entirely on the steerer, no worrying about whether the stem is sitting proud of the steerer by 3mm or 5mm or whatever it’s supposed to be.
I fitted a set of forks and experimented with bar height. I didn’t cut the steerer and fitted a few spacers above the stem. I went over the bars -The broken ribs, cut(and now scar) on my chest were the result hitting the steerer.
grimupnorth – Member
@ ocb…I like the look of that time capsule thingy. Also on your setup did you just mount your top cap on top of the last spacer????
Yeah, I do it on everything I build (to a greater or lesser extent).
On that thing ^ there’s 25mm of spacers, so the steerer will be ~22mm – 23mm into the stack of spacers, to [still] make sure that I can pre-load the headset bearings ok, and not just tighten down onto the top of the steerer-tube without actually ‘compressing’ the headset properly.
It’s got a pretty flat / low-profile top cap to try to keep it out of the way (like one mm is going to help at that point 😉 …).
I went with a spacer below and a couple of spacers above the stem to keep a wee bit extra length shoud I ever want to swap the forks to a different bike.
Doens’t look that bad as long as you don’t go for crazy lengths above. Can tweak the final bar height through the stem length/angle to keep it at your favoured riding height as well.
Possibly a deeper stem would take up a few mm as well saving on spacers…..
Ah … Just a soupçon of concern creeping in now – is that bike used for much big gnarr / jumping malarkey? I can maybe just about see the potential for a bent steerer from a big stack. Somehow I’d not picked up you had already got a bit of excess tube, just that you would have.
That said, I’d have no worries about riding that on the normal range of ‘traditional’ XC stuff.
Just for completeness, (as I’ve taken the picture now 😉 ), and in case you change your mind about carbon, here’s a closer, (tho’ no more illustrative) shot of the pink/black stack on that Duncon up there ^. That’s a stainless bolt through it, rather than the aluminum one it came with, because I’m a show-pony about my fittings materials.
There’s another 10mm spacer between the bottom of the stem and the (also Hope) headset, (an’ that one is kinda black / grey and printed with skulls) …
Also in the picture (tho’ somewhat blurry through DoF, is my old Kona, showing his completely mis-matched stack of spacers – ~17mm of which are above the stem, 20mm below).
Posted 11 years ago
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