How do you remove a star-fangled nut??

[Gruff]

As above.

can i do it myself or do i have to take it to my LBS?

 

[02gf74]

use a tube that is slightly larger thant the central bolt hole and bash it out through the steerer. it takes a bit of time but if you are careful, you won't damage it so can re-use it.

if you aren't planning to re-use it or the lower part of the he steerer is of smaller diameter so the sf nut can't get though, then drill it out by drilling the central hole and use progressibely larger drill bits until the nut falls apart.

 

[Andy B]

Use a drift and knock it further down the steerer tube

Then fit your new SFN over the top of the old one

Unless you're going to use a Head Doctor or similar, then you'll have to try and either punch the SFN all the way through the steerer tube, or fold the tangs of the SFN over so you can pull it out

Or drill time as above

 

[ishaw]

Bang it all the way through. My lbs was lazy and just move it down a bit to fit a new one, so now I have two and more if a headache if I need to replace the newer one.

 

[rocky ridge]

if you have nothing special forks just do as above wack it down from the top till it falls out the bottom

if you have nice forks that you would rather not scratch down the steerer

get a metal hollow round steel tube as large as possible to fit in the steerer tube push it up the bottom to the star nut
then put the stel tube on the ground or something solid then wack the star nut in the middle so it bends the outer bits in to make it smaller then it will come out without any damage to the inner steerer tube

it all depaends on how nice your forks are really

 

[GT-Steve]

I always use an extra long extension bar from a socket set, then knock it all the way through.

If you put a 10mm socket on the end that touched the SFN, it should hammer through straight, without any damage, and render it completely reuseable.

 

[Dick Scruttock]

Some steer tubes taper at the bottom or the hole can be to small for the SFN to pass through.

Get a drill and drill out the centre, soon falls out.

 

[tintin40]

i use a hammer and bash it

 

[letmetalktomark]

Be careful with the bashing.

I tried knocking through a SFN on a set of Reba forks.

Long storey short ..... It's stuck an inch from the bottom and has flared the steerer so that it now catches on the lower cup of some headsets :?

bugger.

 

[walleater]

If the inside of the steerer is tapered, and / or you don't have large enough drill bits, but do have a long screw driver, you can stick the screw driver up the inside of the steerer and tap it so it folds the SFN tabs up so it can be removed. It'll make a mess of the SFN obviously but I personally would never re-use one any way.