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@LaserFrennox
One thing I’ve learned from only the initial parts to building this bike? No matter how much you plan and plan again about what you need and what will work, you’re always going to get it wrong.
And so begins the saga of the top cap bolt.
I’ve used expanding compression plugs in my fork steerer on my Surly for ages now, even before I put a carbon fork on it, so planned for the same thing with the Saracen. Bought myself a cheap-ish one from Tredz while I was picking up a few tubes and the sort a while ago, so no problems there. Installed it into the steerer after I’d pressed the headset cups into the frame and got that little buzz when I felt things were coming together. Oh how very wrong I was
The top cap bolt seemed to be around 10mm too long and ended up bottoming out in the plug. This wasn’t a problem I’d had with any other plug because they’re usually threaded all the way through, but not a problem I couldn’t fix. I knew I needed to cut it. My train of thought went something like this:
“Should probably measure how much shorter I need that bolt.. Taking the top cap off will help me do that better.. yeah I’ll just screw it all the way down to the bottom and measure the difference.. God I’m so clever, I really should’ve went into mechanical engineering”
I screwed it down to the bottom of the plug without a moments hesitation, measured the difference (all smug with myself) and went to take the bolt out, only for the plug to SPIN IN THE STEERER TUBE.
So now I’ve got an expander that I can’t tighten up again because there’s a bolt in the way. Never before have I felt so much like I deserved some slices of bread as ear muffs.
Cutting my losses, I decided I’d just hammer the star nut in and be done with it. Bought myself a setting tool cause it’s useful to have the tools anyway and spotted the Nukeproof Garmin mount cap. Since I was planning on doing some touring and longer gravel outings I thought I’d give it a go. Gotta qualify for free shipping n all that.
Fast forward another week and I’ve hammered the star nut into the steerer, no issues. Go to put the top cap on and the bolt doesn’t even reach the star nut. This might have something to do with the fact my stem stack is a bit taller than my steerer.. At this point, I deserve a full stottie baked around my head.
We all know the only way to nurse a bruised ego after all of that trauma. I went on a trawl for some longer 50mm top cap bolts and came across capsmith.cc. They claimed their 40mm brake mount bolts would work for a top cap. I’m a sucker for anodised Ti and even if it didn’t work, I’d have a use for it. ANYWAY, it worked and now I’ve got a bit of bling.
More things coming soon!
TLDR: Sometimes you don’t know it all. Instead you should just buy the nice Ti parts you want and not feel guilty about it..
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