Help, fork steerer is too short!

[Ryan Bates]

hi, bought a nice bike on line. unfortunately the carbon fork steerer has been cut just a bit too
short for me, and i'd like to add 1 or 2 cm if possible. it's cut perfectly for the height it's at
now (half cm below top of stem). am i just screwed, or is there a way to move it up a short bit? i
was thinking maybe adding another 1cm spacer below the stem, then putting a 1cm small piece of 1"
round pvc piping inside of the stem to act as a fork extension. any thoughts??? thanks!

 

[Sheldon Brown]

Ryan Bates wrote:

> hi, bought a nice bike on line. unfortunately the carbon fork steerer has been cut just a bit too
> short for me, and i'd like to add 1 or 2 cm if possible. it's cut perfectly for the height it's at
> now (half cm below top of stem). am i just screwed, or is there a way to move it up a short bit? i
> was thinking maybe adding another 1cm spacer below the stem, then putting a 1cm small piece of 1"
> round pvc piping inside of the stem to act as a fork extension. any thoughts???

That's an easy one. You need one of these:

http://harriscyclery.net/site/page.cfm?PageID=49&SKU=SM1975

Sheldon "I Use 'Em Too" Brown +------------------------------------+
| A good plan today is better than | a perfect plan tomorrow. | --David Mamet | (Wag the Dog,
| Bulworth) |
+------------------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772
FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

 

[Mike Jacoubowsk]

> hi, bought a nice bike on line. unfortunately the carbon fork steerer has been cut just a bit too
> short for me, and i'd like to add 1 or 2 cm if possible. it's cut perfectly for the height it's at
> now (half cm below top of stem). am i just screwed, or is there a way to move it up a short bit? i
> was thinking maybe adding another 1cm spacer below the stem, then putting a 1cm small piece of 1"
> round pvc piping inside of the stem to act as a fork extension. any thoughts??? thanks!

The piece that Sheldon showed you in his response will most certainly work, and we've used them
ourselves on bikes at our shop. However, if you only need 1 or 2cm, are you sure you can't get a
stem that has that much more rise built into it?

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles http://www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

 

[A Muzi]

Ryan Bates wrote:
> hi, bought a nice bike on line. unfortunately the carbon fork steerer has been cut just a bit too
> short for me, and i'd like to add 1 or 2 cm if possible. it's cut perfectly for the height it's at
> now (half cm below top of stem). am i just screwed, or is there a way to move it up a short bit? i
> was thinking maybe adding another 1cm spacer below the stem, then putting a 1cm small piece of 1"
> round pvc piping inside of the stem to act as a fork extension. any thoughts??? thanks!

What do you plan to use to join a plastic pipe to a carbon steerer that's strong enough to take your
weight and torque on the bars out of the saddle?

Don't do that.

Replace the fork with a CrMo steerer version or a threaded (quill stem) model if you want to
actually adjust the stem height to a useful range.
--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971

 

[Mike S.]

"Ryan Bates" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> hi, bought a nice bike on line. unfortunately the carbon fork steerer has been cut just a bit too
> short for me, and i'd like to add 1 or 2 cm if possible. it's cut perfectly for the height it's at
> now (half cm below top of stem). am i just screwed, or is there a way to move it up a short bit? i
> was thinking maybe adding another 1cm spacer below the stem, then putting a 1cm small piece of 1"
> round pvc piping inside of the stem to act as a fork extension. any thoughts??? thanks!

Damn! Cut it twice and its STILL too short!

Gotta hate that.

You've got three options: run what Sheldon recommends, find a different stem with more rise, or sell
off the too short fork and buy another one.

I've got one stem with several (3-5mm) of stem showing above the top of my steerer tube. Doesn't
seem to hurt it too much.

I'd stay away from that PVC thing you're talking about. Not overly safe...

Option three is the most painful, but is optimal for finding your perfect fit.

Mike

 

[O Wtf]

"Ryan Bates" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> hi, bought a nice bike on line. unfortunately the carbon fork steerer has been cut just a bit too
> short for me, and i'd like to add 1 or 2 cm if possible. it's cut perfectly for the height it's at
> now (half cm below top of stem). am i just screwed, or is there a way to move it up a short bit? i
> was thinking maybe adding another 1cm spacer below the stem, then putting a 1cm small piece of 1"
> round pvc piping inside of the stem to act as a fork extension. any thoughts??? thanks!

PVC? For a second, I thought I was on some sort of plumbing usenet group, but then I came to my
senses and realized you meant Plainly Very Catastrophic pipe. Don't do it, man! Unless you relish
the thought of enriching your dentist after the apshalt leaps up and crushes all your front teeth
that is. For the price of a crown on one tooth, you could probably get TWO new forks with uncut
steerers - one to practice on and one to actually use! (With a bit of care, you'd have two usable
forks.) Just trying to help you keep things in perspective...

 

[Werehatrack]

On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 22:42:58 -0800, "Mike S." <mikeshaw2@coxDOTnet> may
have said:

>Option three is the most painful, but is optimal for finding your perfect fit.

Option 3a: buy a threaded fork, and gain the inherent ability to adjust the height of the stem
whenever you wish, without shims or spacers, and without having to buy yet another stem each time.

Option 4: If the steerer tube is steel, and has a useful inner diameter for the purpose, take it to
a machine shop and get it threaded. Swap the headset, install a threaded stem, and ignore the whole
how-do-I-get-a-different-rise dilemma from then on.

I think the OP is probably not going to find those options appealing, though. (But I would.)

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Yes, I have a killfile. If I don't respond to something,
it's also possible that I'm busy.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

 

[Mike S.]

"WTF,O" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Ryan Bates" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > hi, bought a nice bike on line. unfortunately the carbon fork steerer has been cut just a bit
> > too short for me, and i'd like to add 1 or 2 cm if possible. it's cut perfectly for the height
> > it's at now (half cm below top of stem). am i just screwed, or is there a way to move it up a
> > short bit? i was thinking maybe adding another 1cm spacer below the stem, then putting a 1cm
> > small piece of 1" round pvc piping inside of the stem to act as a fork extension. any
> > thoughts??? thanks!
>
> PVC? For a second, I thought I was on some sort of plumbing usenet group, but then I came to my
> senses and realized you meant Plainly Very Catastrophic pipe. Don't do it, man! Unless you relish
> the thought of enriching your dentist after the apshalt leaps up and crushes all your
front
> teeth that is. For the price of a crown on one tooth, you could probably get TWO new forks with
> uncut steerers - one to practice on and one to actually use! (With a bit of care, you'd have two
> usable forks.) Just trying to help you keep things in perspective...
>
I can tell you for a fact that pavement DOES NOT taste good.

I was being stupid delivering papers way back when, fell, now I don't have any front teeth.

Yes, its a PITA I'll have to deal with for the rest of my life!

Mike

 

[Jeff]

Ryan

It has been my experience that rising the stem 1-2cm does not make a very noticable difference in
the feel/comfort. However, maybe that is just me.

Cheers Jeff

"Ryan Bates" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> hi, bought a nice bike on line. unfortunately the carbon fork steerer has been cut just a bit too
> short for me, and i'd like to add 1 or 2 cm if possible. it's cut perfectly for the height it's at
> now (half cm below top of stem). am i just screwed, or is there a way to move it up a short bit? i
> was thinking maybe adding another 1cm spacer below the stem, then putting a 1cm small piece of 1"
> round pvc piping inside of the stem to act as a fork extension. any thoughts??? thanks!

 

[Jeff Starr]

[email protected] (Ryan Bates) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> hi, bought a nice bike on line. unfortunately the carbon fork steerer has been cut just a bit too
> short for me, and i'd like to add 1 or 2 cm if possible. it's cut perfectly for the height it's at
> now (half cm below top of stem). am i just screwed, or is there a way to move it up a short bit? i
> was thinking maybe adding another 1cm spacer below the stem, then putting a 1cm small piece of 1"
> round pvc piping inside of the stem to act as a fork extension. any thoughts??? thanks!

Hi, here is a stem riser chart, that might help you determine what would work for you. There are
road stems that will give you 5, 6, 10, 17, and ??? degrees of rise. What kind of stem is on there
now? Have you thought about flipping it over, or is it already in that position? They do make 5mm
spacers, so maybe between one of those and a stem with more rise, you can get what you need. Chart:
http://www.habcycles.com/fitting.html

Jeff