I need to remove the steerer tube plug to cut down the tube. It is this one:
https://www.specialized.com/us/en/components/drivetrain/carbon-steerer-tube-plug/105114
I’ve installed/uninstalled this before. Last time just had to loosen the expansion bolt, give it a tap, then fish the bottom plug out of the fork. FWIW, the top cover also will not come off. Lifts a bit, then gets stuck–I’m guessing due to the expansion of the plug.
Screw the headcap bolt back in some and hit it with a hammer. It will set you free.
Tried that. Didn’t budge.
Tried that. Didn’t budge.
Is it perhaps cemented in with dried up energy drink? If so a good deal of warm water might be in order.
Hugh
it’s a new build. bike has never been ridden.
Ok, so just yesterday I took my fork out of my bike to cut a little steerer tube off after having ridden it for about 6-8 months. Fork came out easily, no problem. Remembered seeing this compression plug had a tapered plug on top and on bottom. Decided ok, back out the center screw above the top of the fork, tap it with a hammer (required more force than I would have guessed). Bottom wedge undone. Compression plug still won’t move. So I decide to take it to my local specialized dealer who is a friend of mine and ask “so what is the secret with these compression plugs?” He responds with “I just got off the phone with specialized yesterday bitterly complaining about how stupid these things are. We cut them out and Specilized credits us with new ones”. So that is what we did. Cut out a perfectly good compression plug because there is no way to get one out that has taken set in there. Especially with the 9 N/M they call out for a torque.
Long story short…take the fork to your local specialized dealer and ask if they have a trick, and if they don’t complain about how bad a design it is!
I called the nearest dealer–an hour and a half away–and am taking it in tomorrow. Did you have to pay for labor? Their going rate is $80/hour.
These are a total pain to get out, but this is my strategy. You have to realize its 2 wedges that are pushing together to put tension on the sides of the explander part.
Put the bolt back in and hammer the top so that the bottom wedge is loose. Take the bolt out. Next, you need to use a bolt head that will go inside the top wedge with the lip that will contact the wedge. Use some vice grips and clamp the bolt and use a hammer to hit the vice grips so that it jolts the bolt head and wedge interface. My local shop uses a slide hammer. It is the same principal, but you don’t need speciality tools with my method.
The problem is that I cannot get the bottom wedge loose–at all.
I didn’t pay labor, but the owner is a friend of mine (i.e. we have meals together outside the shop, and I help him and he helps me). 80/hr. is pretty normal for large markets.
The slide hammer method would work if you could grab something. There are a couple models of this compression plug that have varying degrees of shittiness in regards to having something you could grab on with a slide hammer. The model I had seemed to be worse in that regard than the model we replaced it with. I guess you could have used a bearing puller collate inside the bolt hole and put the slide hammer on that…but that is a way more trouble than it is worth.
thanks
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You aren’t hitting it hard enough. Best to bring it to a shop.
For those who are considering using this plug, I ended up having to take it to a bike mechanic to get it out. Even he couldn’t get it loose with a good whack. He had to use all sorts of special tools, and it took about an hour of labor. As I suspected, the compression was causing a bulge in the carbon steerer tube, which is why I couldn’t get the top cap off.
All of this negated the reason why I choose to use the Specialized plug (vs. the insert from Cervelo that has to be epoxied in)–which was to be able to remove it to cut the steerer tube after I had dry fit and finalized everything. Went back to the Cervelo insert and am finishing up now.