Racing Bike mod #1:
Having recently purchased a 2nd user Colnago frame and fork set from Ebay, I noticed the steerer tube had been cut down to eliminate the use of spacers and as a result, the stem height could not be adjusted to suit.
Essentially, there would be insufficient material when tightening the top stem bolt causing the carbon steerer to collapse.
The 'all carbon' forks made it impossible to machine, bond or thread. Had the steerer been constructed from alloy, I would have used the professional services of an engineering company to tig weld an extra lump of 1' 1/8" steerer tube and turned down on a lathe.
I approached several bike shops but they were against the idea from the outset and a brand new set of forks at £400 plus wasn't an option. Firstly, I was able to beg an offcut of alloy steerer from a friendly bike shop in Ripon, North Yorkshire FOC. (Moonglu)
Secondly, I purchased an extended ITM 52mm carbon expanding nut in a bid to internally connect the carbon and alloy tube to form the extended steerer tube.
The problem being the internal diameter of the carbon steerer was 22mm and the alloy offcut was around 20.5mm - this would not allow the expanding nut to engage with the alloy tube. To overcome this problem, I called on a plumber who let me have a a small offcut of 22mm copper pipe- this was trimmed with a pipe cutter to the right size and cut along the length of the tube to allow the tube to act as a shim and allowed to expand to the correct internal diameter.
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Mike Leggiero
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