Mixing the "wrong" headset/fork and stem

Paul Boyd wrote:
On 29/09/2008 19:13, Rob Morley said,

You need to change the stem either way. With a quill stem you don't
need to adjust the headset on reassembly.

Yebbut.... with a quill stem you have to dismantle the bars to slide
it off. With a threadless stem you don't :-)

Adjusting the headset is a non-issue. You just tighten the centre
bolt until there's no more play. Granted, you don't need to do that
with a quill stem.

There are a few front-opening quill stems, or if you can get over the "ugly"
thing, use an ahead stem with a quill converter.

There's no denying that it's easier to adjust a quill stem. It's just a
question of whether that's important to you. It's not important enough for
me to be put off threadless.

~PB

On 29/09/2008 19:13, Rob Morley said,

You need to change the stem either way. With a quill stem you don't
need to adjust the headset on reassembly.

Yebbut.... with a quill stem you have to dismantle the bars to slide it
off. With a threadless stem you don't :-)

Adjusting the headset is a non-issue. You just tighten the centre bolt
until there's no more play. Granted, you don't need to do that with a
quill stem.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:04:22 +0100, Paul Boyd wrote:

On 29/09/2008 19:13, Rob Morley said,

You need to change the stem either way. With a quill stem you don't
need to adjust the headset on reassembly.

Yebbut.... with a quill stem you have to dismantle the bars to slide it
off.

Not all of them.

With a threadless stem you don't :-)

Adjusting the headset is a non-issue. You just tighten the centre bolt
until there's no more play. Granted, you don't need to do that with a
quill stem.

Richard Thrippleton wrote:
Does anybody here have personal experience of using a quill stem with a
threadless steerer? I'm aware of a trick that Sheldon Brown used in
which the pressure on the top bearings is maintained by some kind of
pinch collar (seatpost clamp?), eliminating the cap at the top and the
spacers on the steerer. I'd assume that this leaves you with a steerer
in which you're free to insert a quill stem, rather than clamping a
new-style stem to the steerer.

I have personal experience of doing this. My Airnimal is set up this
way. There's a clamp at the top of the steerer to adjust the headset
tension, and into this a quill stem is inserted.

It works well to allow a small folded package. The usual way to get a
large distance between top of head tube and handlebars with threadless
steerers is to have a very long steerer tube and loads of spacers. The
solution I have means that I have a failrly short steerer, and then a
long quill stem that comes apart from the steerer, so the whole
package can be folded smaller.

-Myra

Myra in Cambridge wrote:
Richard Thrippleton wrote:
Does anybody here have personal experience of using a quill stem with a
threadless steerer? I'm aware of a trick that Sheldon Brown used in
which the pressure on the top bearings is maintained by some kind of
pinch collar (seatpost clamp?), eliminating the cap at the top and the
spacers on the steerer. I'd assume that this leaves you with a steerer
in which you're free to insert a quill stem, rather than clamping a
new-style stem to the steerer.

I have personal experience of doing this. My Airnimal is set up this
way. There's a clamp at the top of the steerer to adjust the headset
tension, and into this a quill stem is inserted.
Awesome! It's good to know that this can definitely work. Just to
clarify further, what kind of clamp did you use? I don't remember what
it was that Sheldon's trick used, and only assumed it was a separate
seatpost clamp.

Cheers,
Richard

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:25:35 +0100
Richard Thrippleton wrote:

Awesome! It's good to know that this can definitely work. Just to
clarify further, what kind of clamp did you use? I don't remember
what it was that Sheldon's trick used, and only assumed it was a
separate seatpost clamp.

Sheldon did several bikes that had both threadless and quill stems -
is that what you're thinking of?

I forgot the name of this clamp arrangement. I will try to remember to
go out to the shed tonight to see what it's called. It has two parts.
One is a clamp, about 4cm tall, looks like a threadless stem but
without the part that sticks forward and holds the handlebars.
Underneath this is another clamping widget that's alot narrower, less
than 1cm. What you do is you have the lower narrow clamp as loose as
it can go, then push the top clamp down onto it and tighten the top
clamp up. Then when you tighten the lower clamp it kind of expands (by
using angled surfaces to push against the clamp above it) and that
makes the headset more or less tight (tighten lower clamp to tighen
headset, loosen lower clamp to loosen headset).

You definitely need this double-clamp arrangement to be able to
properly adjust the headset tension. Just one clamp won't get the
headset tight enough.

Again, I'll try to remember to go to the shed to see what this
clamping arrangement is called.

-Myra

On Wed, 1 Oct 2008 01:49:01 -0700 (PDT)
Myra in Cambridge wrote:

You definitely need this double-clamp arrangement to be able to
properly adjust the headset tension. Just one clamp won't get the
headset tight enough.

You can use a plain clamp (cutoff stem, seatpost clamp, whatever) and
preload the bearings with a length of studding right through the steerer
secured at each end by a nut and large washer.

Richard Thrippleton wrote:
Does anybody here have personal experience of using a quill stem with a
threadless steerer? I'm aware of a trick that Sheldon Brown used in
which the pressure on the top bearings is maintained by some kind of
pinch collar (seatpost clamp?), eliminating the cap at the top and the
spacers on the steerer. I'd assume that this leaves you with a steerer
in which you're free to insert a quill stem, rather than clamping a
new-style stem to the steerer. Can one get steerers in the appropriate
diameter? Are there any non-obvious pitfalls? Am I being dumb in some
other way?

I don't currently have any threadless forks to test this with. The
reason I ask is that I see a time in the future when it gets
increasingly hard to buy bicycles with threaded forks, and want to
continue using the (clearly superior) quill stem technology.

Cheers,
Richard


Only works with steel steerers, alloy and carbon don't have the right ID
for starters.

Dia Compe do a headset for this, and there is also the Use ring-go star

--
/Marten

info(apestaartje)m-gineering(punt)nl

On Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:50:48 +0200
M-gineering wrote:

Dia Compe do a headset for this, and there is also the Use ring-go
star

How does that work? Does the adjusting screw expand the conical washer?