Can steerer tube be made longer?

[Jimmy2021]

Hi everyone, back from a trip to Italy, I was talking to my cousin, a keen road cyclist, and he said they extend steerer tubes all the time by threading them.

He drew this for me...


He said that once tightened with red thread lock, it never comes out again.
Steel steerers can also be welded after being screwed in.
I understand that road bikes don't have that many vibrations compared to MTB, but to me it sounded like an easy and safe plan.
Maybe I would use epoxy adhesive for a permanent job, but apart from that ...

What do you think?

 

[novocaine]

Hi everyone, back from a trip to Italy, I was talking to my cousin, a keen road cyclist, and he said they extend steerer tubes all the time by threading them.

He drew this for me...
View attachment 994930

He said that once tightened with red thread lock, it never comes out again.
Steel steerers can also be welded after being screwed in.
I understand that road bikes don't have that many vibrations compared to MTB, but to me it sounded like an easy and safe plan.
Maybe I would use epoxy adhesive for a permanent job, but apart from that ...

What do you think?

depends on the wall thickness of the tube. you have to half the thickness to allow fit then remove the material for the thread (Assuming a 1.5mm pitch). that doesn't leave a lot of material.
but yes, in theory this is doable.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Hi everyone, back from a trip to Italy, I was talking to my cousin, a keen road cyclist, and he said they extend steerer tubes all the time by threading them.

He drew this for me...
View attachment 994930

He said that once tightened with red thread lock, it never comes out again.
Steel steerers can also be welded after being screwed in.
I understand that road bikes don't have that many vibrations compared to MTB, but to me it sounded like an easy and safe plan.
Maybe I would use epoxy adhesive for a permanent job, but apart from that ...

What do you think?

I wouldn't ride it 100m

depends on the wall thickness of the tube. you have to half the thickness to allow fit then remove the material for the thread (Assuming a 1.5mm pitch). that doesn't leave a lot of material.
but yes, in theory this is doable.

Steerer Wall thickness is fixed.
Internal is 22.2, external is 25.4
So the most you've got is 1.6mm, before the threads are cut.

Now if you've got a thread cut already on the outside, that's lost you say 0.6mm
So if you cut a thread on the inside that's another 0.6mm, making 1.2mm cut through 1.6mm wall...
So you've got 0.4mm metal left

Those nice deep grooves make a beautiful stress riser too, especially with the rocking stresses in the steerer

I would think riding one of these down a mountain road is a recipe for an early death.

epoxying
a 22.2mm tube straight in there would be a lot safer, although I've seen them broken too.

 

[novocaine]

I wouldn't ride it 100m

Steerer Wall thickness is fixed.
Internal is 22.2, external is 25.4
So the most you've got is 1.6mm, before the threads are cut.

Now if you've got a thread cut already on the outside, that's lost you say 0.6mm
So if you cut a thread on the inside that's another 0.6mm, making 1.2mm cut through 1.6mm wall...
So you've got 0.4mm metal left

Those nice deep grooves make a beautiful stress riser too, especially with the rocking stresses in the steerer

I would think riding one of these down a mountain road is a recipe for an early death.

epoxying
a 22.2mm tube straight in there would be a lot safer, although I've seen them broken too.

Yer, that's what I was getting at, but didn't have the specs to hand. Thanks as ever, i figured someone would know the specs, I should have come to you.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Yer, that's what I was getting at, but didn't have the specs to hand. Thanks as ever, i figured someone would know the specs, I should have come to you.

Surely every retrobiker knows an inch steerer takes a 22.2 quill?

Is the bear a Catholic?

 

[Pllacebo99]

SIDS will have an alloy steerer

 

[novocaine]

Surely every retrobiker knows an inch steerer takes a 22.2 quill?

Is the bear a Catholic?

Darling, I don't know what my own cock size is, don't ask me about bike bits these days.

 

[baron von greenback]

OK kayos what size steerer will these fit or have got them for all I got some manitou steerer that are to short w how does it work do you use a long bolt that goes through your adapter and into the spider nut thing (can't think of name) that in the forks locking it all up cheers also how long are they

 

[klunkrider]

Surely every retrobiker knows an inch steerer takes a 22.2 quill?

Is the bear a Catholic?

In steel yeah, alloy steerers will (probably) have much more wall thickness and smaller id.

 

[Ride_Revive]

It’s all been covered in this thread, but for steel steerers, welding has proved itself over and over for me. I tend to do a fair bit of trials on my XC bikes, often jumping on the front wheel. Here’s a video of how I go about the conversion:

(Although titled ‘converting threaded to threadless’ it’s the same process of extending a steerer)

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I have tried welding an aluminium steerer on a set of sids, but I took a different approach…

I bought one of these extenders:



I chamfered the bottom edge that comes into contact with the original steerer, also chamfered the the steerer, the idea being to create space for the seam weld. I fitted it and tighten the bolt (effectively the same mechanism as a quill stem), then welded it.

I fitted it to the bike, pulled up for a wheelie as a test, heard the crack immediately. For me it was more of an experiment to see if the weld combined with the quill would hold - obviously it didn’t.

Also, these type of adapters (that clamp from the inside of the steerer are terrible!)

Bonus content - a bit of trials on a bike I extended the steerer on (steel):

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