Carbon steerer - cut it yourself or not?

Triathlon Forum
1

INow that I have my road bike set up, I need to cut the carbon steerer (?). One of the road guys siad, just get a hacksaw. Is it that easy, or should I take it to somebody?

2

It is fairly straightforward, I do however four tips:

  1. Get your hands on an old (or buy a cheap) stem. Not only does this provide a guide to make a straight 90deg cut, it also gives you something to clamp in the vice and hold things steady wothout crushing your steerer.

  2. Start on one side and cut about 2/3 of the way through, flip to the other side and cut until the two cuts meet. I don’t remember why this is necessary, but I think it has something to do with damaging the steerer.

  3. Lightly sand the top and edges of your cut to eliminate sharp edges. Carbon edges can cut like a razor blade.

  4. Hold onto the rest of steerer. If you know someone who is using a quill-to-ahead adapter on an older bike and they need some spacers you can cut them off a piece of your leftover steerer. Works great and he will think you are a genius. :wink:

3

It is that easy.

Make sure you cut a straight line though, it’s easy if you have a workshop with a vice, just mark where you need to cut the steerer, then remove the whole fork from the bike.

After your done gently sand the rough conrners and apply some CA (cynthalacrylic, SP?) glue to the rough finish, this will help to seal the fibers from the elements and prevent any chance of fraying.

4

Yes it is, I prefer a Dremel or Rotozip though…cleaner cut. You need a VERY fine tooth blade too for a cleaner cut.

5

thanks, however, youjust brought up something else - removing the fork. I have limited bike tools, the last time I tried this, I mangled the crown race. This one is integrated, any suggestions here would be appreciated.

6

My $0.02–For fork/headset work, I always go to my trusted mechanic. No sense spending $300+ on a fork and screwing it up by trying to save $50 labor costs.

7

It is fairly straightforward, I do however four tips:

Article on Cutting and Sizing Forks on the Park Tools website: https://www.parktool.com/repair_help/howfix_forksize.shtml

If desiring to be anal, for carbon fiber steerers use a fine, 32 TPI blade and keep the blade wet to minimize dust from cutting the carbon; and to really be anal, only saw in one direction (ie pull the saw towards you or push the saw away from you for stroke but not both).

8

Using a dremel cuts the steerer like a hot knife through butter, so be very careful if you go that route. Also be sure eye protection and cover your nose and mouth with a mask. I spent a day coughing up carbon after cutting my friends fork a few months ago without breathing protection.

9

I read the instructions in my maintance book and it doesn’t look that hard but since the price for failure is pretty high, I decided to leave it to a pro even though I’m fairly handy with tools.

I waited a year to get mine cut. I took it back to the shop where I bought my bike and they cut it for me while I waited. They didn’t charge me, even after I offered to pay. The whole process including the drive to and from the shop took about 20 minutes. Based on how easy it looked (if you know what you are doing and have the right tools), I can’t imagine it costing more then $20.00 but whatever you get charged, its going to be a heck of alot less than a new fork.

They did ask me 3 seperate times if I was sure about the length, so if you do it yourself, don’t forget this step ;-).

10

Honestly it’s probably easier to just take it to somebody. There are two ways that I have found effective. The best is to just get the park tool sg-6 that you clamp in a vice and has a metal guide. This is probably more expensive than just having the shop do it, unless you work with a lot of bikes. You can get less expensive ones that aren’t adjustable.

Secondly you can take a block of wood drill a hole 7/8” in it and then cut it in half. Clamp the two halfs together with the steer tube in the middle and use the end of the block of wood as a guide. Go slowly and you won’t have a problem, but getting a block of wood, drilling and cutting it exactly in half may be a different story.

The stem method can work too, but I just don’t like to put the stem at risk of getting scraped. I understand you can buy one for this purpose but I would rather put the $ toward a proper guide. They are what $30?

11

Slowman wrote and article on this a few years ago http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/techctr/maintenance/steerer.html
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