Hi All,
Longtime lurker, first time poster. Thanks for all you guys do for the slowtwitch community!
I just bought a (used) 2011 Cervelo P4, and was fooling around with the headset, and I couldn’t get it back together. I’m not sure if this was something I did, or something left over from the previous owner.
Basically, under the steerer tube top cap, there was a long silver bolt, with a silver nut that looks like a star nut. The top cap bolt is clearly supposed to screw into the top of the long silver bolt. However, there is nothing that the silver bolt screws into (the star nut can’t be screwed into). There is an empty screw hole down through the steerer tube on the frame that looks like it could fit the large silver bolt, but it is at completely the wrong angle and way too far down (and I wouldn’t want to screw the steerer tube to the frame anyway). The star nut doesn’t wedge in, and even if it did, it doesn’t attach to the silver bolt, so it wouldn’t be holding anything together anyway.
I’m not sure what fork this is, perhaps the Cervelo FK25. I’m not very experienced with bike maintenance, but I think I know the basic concept of this stuff. Anyone know how it’s supposed to fit together?
I’ve got photos that I can post too, if needed.
Thanks!
Here are the photos of the parts I was talking about and the inside of the steerer tube. I’m not sure if I’m correctly attaching the photos.
I know nothing about the p4 unfortunately, but there are also no photos attached
.
You have a small problem…
There are a couple pieces to this system…a carbon steerer tube attached to the fork, an aluminum sleeve that is supposed to be epoxied to the steerer tube after it is cut, the star nut…and then the bolt and top cap.
Your sleeve and carbon steerer tube have appeared to have separated. See if you can pull the star nut and sleeve out by screwing a bolt into it and pulling up. If you can get it out just re-epoxy that sleeve in at the top of the steerer tube and go on with life.
Install a new star nut at the correct depth.
You need the aluminum sleeve and bonding kit from 3T (or Cervelo). This required part is missing from your fork. The sleeve is structural: it helps support the steerer against being crushed by the stem, so also check the steerer for deformation or other damage. Hopefully you don’t have to replace the fork.
The various silver parts in the picture seem to be what’s left of an alternative expander someone might have substituted in your fork.
Thanks, you guys are the best! I don’t have the tools or the knowhow, so I’ll bring it to my LBS tomorrow.
Can you pull that sleeve out of the steerer tube?
No, I can’t. It’s pretty stuck. If it weren’t for you guys telling me otherwise, I would have thought that the sleeve was attached there.
Would it help to take the front fork/steerer tube off the bike? I’m kind of loathe to do that for no reason, but if that or other disassembly would help…
Thanks!
Just a follow-up: like some of you said, the sleeve was lodged deep in my steerer tube. My LBS saw it and asked “can you come back later?”
But since it was so lodged in and so far down, they were able to simply replace it and the top cap, and now the bike steers fine!
Thanks everyone for the help.