You are reading a single comment by @MattXD and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@MattXD
I'm currently building up a touring/commuting bike (think robust and reliable) and have encountered a problem in installing a headset.
I bought a pretty decent frame off ebay, which I then had powder coated at armourtex. The head tube on the frame is approx. 196mm, but the steerer tube is only approx. 227mm, giving me a stack height of 31mm. I can't seem to find any decent threaded headsets with such a short stack height. The only ones I can find are made by Tange, which seem very cheap and pretty crap according to the reviews I've read. Not exactly ideal for reliability.
Though I haven't looked into it fully, I also figure there wouldn't be enough space to use a threadless 1" headset (which have shorter stack heights) and a clap stem.
So I figure my options are to either buy new forks with a longer steerer tube, or to try and extend the steerer tube on my existing forks. The second of these options would be preferable, as it would mean not having to get the new forks srayed to match the rest of the bike. Does anyone have any experience cutting steerer tubes and welding/inserting a spacing tube?
Fortunately I have family friends who are mechanics/engineers, so hopefully someone might be interested in having a go at this for me. Presumably if the steerer tube gets cut at a right angle, and the edges of the insert are also square, it should just be a case of securing it in place and welding it? Finally, the forks are cro-mo, are there any issues welding these?
Cheers,
Matt