Manitou One's questions

I've acquired a set of these for my retro build, apparently in good nick and working. I've had a look on the for sale and steerer swap sections and couldnt find much and swapped a few emails on some possibles but havent really found a crown steerer swap.

So... my question I'm hoping you retro experts can answer is, can the steerer alone be swapped on Manitou One's? Looking at the pics there's four allen bolts on the back of the crown near where the steerer joins them, does anybody know if that will release the crown or are they for the stancions? and if not for either of those jobs... what the heck they are for?

Do you experts also know if the crown and steerers are inter changeable with 2/3/4's or any other manitou forks? I 'hear' they are.

As it stands the steerer is threaded, probbaly just about long enough but might be short... so in an ideal world I would fancy a unthreaded steerer, circa 190mm / 200 mmm. I just dont know if I'm hunting for a steerer OR steerer and crown OR one of those new steerers on ebay germany can be added to my current crown.

H-elp h-elp... any difinitive answers out there?

Thx

looking at this wonderful scan of the one's instructions appears to indicate that it can be changed but does anybody have personal experience of trying this?

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=257529

If you have that style of crown then P.7 of the instruction manual tells you how to remove the steerer...

...only trouble is you'd need the same type of steerer to replace it because it doesn't just rely on the clamping action of the bolted crown, it needs the retaining ring also.

In answer to your other question; yes the different model fork crowns are interchangeable.

is the retaining ring removable from the old steerer?

According to the manual yes...

cheers stevo - new steerer ordered, forks should be here today/tomorrow and then I'll find out for sure!

I transferred the same fork from a bike with Evolution sized steer tube to 11/8" during the mid 90's and recall I had to order a new crown as well as the steerer. Hope my recollection is wrong, good luck. Manitou 1's were solid forks but a bit heavy. Get a spring set to replace the elastomers and you'll be good to go.
Cheers

I replaced the steerer of mine with a Titanium one when they first came out early 90s. It was a simple job. You could even get Ti stanchions bitd but they were a bit too flexy in the reviews.

I have been looking at this eBay listing # 151109231147
Can't see a retainer clip slot in these steerers but it may be possible to make one and fit the clip. Not such a simple job with Manitou 3/4 forks though :facepalm:

Glwi

Yep. That's where my replacement steerer is coming from ordered mid week. They don't have the circlip grove but on mtbr they say that as long as its tight its fine. I think I'll take it along with the old steerer and see if a machine shop might carefully put a groove in.