Help, fork steerer is too short!

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!

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.c...=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

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

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

"Ryan Bates" wrote in message
om...
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

"Ryan Bates" wrote in message
om...
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...

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:07:49 -0800, 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.

Ah, the advantages of a threadless fork.

The most reasonable alternative will be to get a riser stem. Lots of them
are made for precisely this purpose, since most new bikes come with zero
possibility of adding a spacer. Of course, a new spacer costs $0.50,
while a new stem costs $30 and a new fork costs $300. Now you know
why they cut them short (that, and that's how racers set them up), and for
whom threadless forks are superior.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | When you are up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember
_`\(,_ | that your initial objective was to drain the swamp. -- LBJ
(_)/ (_) |

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.

"WTF,O" wrote in message
...

"Ryan Bates" wrote in message
om...
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

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" wrote in message
om...
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!