steerer tube material

Carbon Steerers are need more attention than Aluminum ones for sure. The most important thing is to use a Torque Wrench when installing your stem and tightening the bolts. Follow the manufacturer guidlines for bolt fastening pressure. I think this is the one most important thing to do to prevent premature failure in this area.

jrstevens said:

I rode with a gent for the first time yesterday and we talked bike equipment for some time. On the topic of steerer tube material he said that forks with carbon steerer tubes have the shortest fatigue life and need to be replaced (the whole fork) yearly. Apparently some companies (I think he mentioned Look) have a warning in the paperwork that comes with new forks in regards to this. I had never heard this before and was curious as to its veracity.

TIA,

JS

carbonguru said:

Carbon Steerers are need more attention than Aluminum ones for sure. The most important thing is to use a Torque Wrench when installing your stem and tightening the bolts. Follow the manufacturer guidlines for bolt fastening pressure. I think this is the one most important thing to do to prevent premature failure in this area.

I think that maybe it is a good idea to have a spacer on top of your stem to have the whole length of steerer covering the width of the stem. Somebody told me that some companies are recomending this to keep from crushing the end of the steerer with tightening the stem. I think that if you are carefull it is not a problem but maybe a good idea.

pudster said:

I think that maybe it is a good idea to have a spacer on top of your stem to have the whole length of steerer covering the width of the stem. Somebody told me that some companies are recomending this to keep from crushing the end of the steerer with tightening the stem. I think that if you are carefull it is not a problem but maybe a good idea.

That's a good idea, since the top of the steerer tube is pretty vulnerable. Compression plugs don't seem to protect this area very well. I will say that some of the super light forks make me a little nervous, like the Look HSC 5, The 425 gram fork that came with my Pinarello seems pretty beefy by comparison. If you like the bars higher, you may want to consider flipping the stem up, since it is recommended that you don't exceed 30mm on a 1 1/8 steerer or 25 mm on a 1" carbon steerer.

jrstevens said:

I rode with a gent for the first time yesterday and we talked bike equipment for some time. On the topic of steerer tube material he said that forks with carbon steerer tubes have the shortest fatigue life and need to be replaced (the whole fork) yearly. Apparently some companies (I think he mentioned Look) have a warning in the paperwork that comes with new forks in regards to this. I had never heard this before and was curious as to its veracity.

TIA,

JS

Where do people come up with this kind of BS? Do you honestly think Reynolds or other major companies would be selling CF forks with CF steertubes if they needed to be replaced every year? Barring a major crash or bone-head assembly error, has your buddy ever seen a CF steertube fail on a quality fork?

Agree it's important to follow the fork manufacturer's installation instructions and warnings, but it's really not that difficult to get it right.

Replace a carbon steerer fork yearly? That's pure bull shat. But if you must, please send your one year old forks to me for "disposal".

dhk2 said:

Where do people come up with this kind of BS? Do you honestly think Reynolds or other major companies would be selling CF forks with CF steertubes if they needed to be replaced every year? Barring a major crash or bone-head assembly error, has your buddy ever seen a CF steertube fail on a quality fork?

Agree it's important to follow the fork manufacturer's installation instructions and warnings, but it's really not that difficult to get it right.

The only case of steerer tube failure that comes to mind this year was George Hincappie at Paris Roubaix. Steerer tube material: Aluminum

I have a Reynolds ouzo pro (1"😉 that's on it's third year and my Pinarello 1 1/8" Beta fork is at the end of it's second season. Unless I discover a stress crack in either during my winter disassembly/cleaning, both forks are going back into use for 07. The steerer tube has pretty thick walls. I would say it would take some seriously hard blows with a hammer to crush it.

....but, it's interesting that the first thing to be replaced for the Classics is the carbon steerer for an aluminium one. Boonen even went for steel this year.

531Aussie said:

....but, it's interesting that the first thing to be replaced for the Classics is the carbon steerer for an aluminium one. Boonen even went for steel this year.

And there were plenty of CF steerers in P-R, too.

To say you need to replace a fork with a CF steerer every year is complete [censored]. As someone else said, it's wise to inspect your steerer, but that's about it. It's about time to kill off the internet myth that CF is not durable, will explode if you look at it, or whatever wive's tale is being pushed at a given time.

A guy that I know came into the shop with his race bike after he had crashed in a road race. He hit a deep pothole at about 40mph and sheared his fork legs off about 3 inches down from the crown. It was an True Temper Alpha Q. He had been using it for 3 seasons. That was not the fault of the fork and I think that a carbon fork is good for years. It was kind of neat to see where it broke. Not at the steerer but down the legs a bit.

[font='MS Gothic'][font=Verdana]Carbon steerer normally use an aluminum expander for the top cap instead of the star-nut found on aluminum and steel A-head style steerers. IMO, the expander also helps in strengthening the area where the stem clamps. Having said this, the weaker part on this set up is the area below it. Chances are, that area will be occupied by spacers and below it is the top of the top-tube. As I've always maintained, that area, the one where the steerer meets the top tube, is the weak link. That is why mechanics set up the bikes of the pros in such a way that the A-Head stem is flushed to the top tube (no spacers) and that the expander sits between this area which reinforces it.[/font][font=Verdana][/font]

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531Aussie said:

....but, it's interesting that the first thing to be replaced for the Classics is the carbon steerer for an aluminium one. Boonen even went for steel this year.

To get the greater fork rake for P-R, Trek used a lower end commuter fork on Hincapie's bike. I am not sure that it is a case of them intentionally using Al instead of carbon, but more like the fork came with an AL steer tube so that is what they used.

When carbon forks first came out there was a real fear that we would see a lot failures and bad crashes. Never happened. The stuff has been proven to be durable. You should periodically check all your equipment. I also feell safer when I buy higher priced stuff like forks, bars, and stems from premier, established companies, and stuff that is not too close to the cutting edge.

531Aussie said:

....but, it's interesting that the first thing to be replaced for the Classics is the carbon steerer for an aluminium one. Boonen even went for steel this year.

I could be wrong but the article I read said they selected the fork based on the rake and the fork happened to have an Al steerer. The fork came from a commuter bike I believe. There were some people who chose Al steerers and as many who chose full carbon.

--brett

Bro Deal said:

To get the greater fork rake for P-R, Trek used a lower end commuter fork on Hincapie's bike. I am not sure that it is a case of them intentionally using Al instead of carbon, but more like the fork came with an AL steer tube so that is what they used...

It should be noted thatTrek did not just take the fork form their commuter line 'off-the-shelf'. They still prepared it (ie. shot-peened the steerer to make it stronger!?) before they installed it on the bike. What is peculiar is that since they went into trouble of preparing a special bike for Hincapie, why didn’t they also (Trek) make a fork specially for Hincapie's needs instead of borrowing something not meant for that bike in the first place. Word has it that the decision was done last minute... risky and they paid for it. Too bad, I was rooting for Hincapie and thought this year's P-R was his after coming so close in the previous couple of years and specifically stating he wanted this.