Retro-modern fusion gravel build madness. The new Superb!

A conversation with @Mickeyspinn [oh crap, did I listen to this guy again?!] made me go to the shed and I came up with the following combination of a cheapo quill adapter, FSA carbon fork bung and a star nut.
It's mickey's idea, but not having a metalworking lathe, I figured out a way to use spare parts from the shed.

Easy hack with minimum drilling.
Drill out the nut to allow the quill bolt through. Hammer the nut into the adapter. [Photo is wrong - presumably, need to hammer back-to-front as it will have to resist pressure from the top...Or you can hammer 4-5 of these into the adapter until they ain't moving down under the quill bolt load]
Drill out the FSA bung to allow the quill bolt (but not the head!) through.
Assemble. Tighten the quill bolt. (Fsa inner rests on the star nut inside the adapter body. Bolt rests on the FSA inner.
Add spacers.
Screw on the top cap to preload the EC30 headset bearings.

Two things I don't like about it.
1 is that these cheapo adapters have alloy wall thickness of 1.95mm (In contrast, a better quality adapter measures 3.75mm but won't accept the FSA bung without further serious bodging). Put a deep scratch on it and say hello to a stress riser with ~1.5mm wall thickness!
2 The slightest movement of the quill adapter will mess up your bearing preload.

Anything I've missed?

This is not my first choice for the threadless bodge, but I think it's workable. Usual caveats apply, don't blame me for gross misuse of bike parts if things go wrong.

* SUCKS AIR THROUGH SMALL GAP IN MOUTH AND WONDERS ABOUT YOUR INSURANCE POLICY SMALL PRINT *
 
Think the dentists bill would probably negate the cost, whats the worst that could happen:) :)

Personally see it's either a full blown vintage French headset and stem. The stem could perhaps have a conversion to make it an a-head adapter (I've done this before by cutting off the horizontal part). No messing and no mix-and-match but we are back on the old nugget of sourcing an obsolete part in reasonable condition which is costly / wishful thinking.

Spending too much money on a bag of pick-n-mix headset for bodge is something I would try to restrain myself. A stash of parts will help and effectively there could be something suitable and safe.

Full on, the money goes on a proper future proof job - the steerer column is upgraded by about 40 years, but still about 30 years old :LOL:
 
French stem is just a 22.2 sanded down, surely?

Safety wise, My biggest concern with the proposed solution is the quality of that particular ahead adaptor. That's why I've switched to a different one on the Bojack. Everything else is pretty solid imho.
Star nut is always in the clamp section (of a threadless alloy steerer tube), isn't it?
But the potential for slippage (if a quill ain't slipping, it's chemically bonded to the steerer tube, right?) to mess up bearing preload can turn into a very annoying issue.

In this particular case the threaded section doesn't matter - it's held in place by the top cap of EC30 headset.
 
That's how I ended up with the dang frogbike first place!
I am guilty of this myself, I see a project. Get it. Run into an obstacle, think... I'll find a way around it. I drink. Heavily. I scream into the void come midnight, pass the blame around. Its all on Mickey and Woz.

Then one day, I feel a tingly sensation and a voice in my head goes. 'Why not spend more money on this project that was meant to be a budget, fit it with what I've got laying about kind of build, you've gone down the rabbit hole anyway, have your carrots.'

And then I wake up, drenched in sweat, credit card stuck to my greasy back and a woman staring down at me, pitifully saying' you've done it again haven't you'

I don't dare deny it.

Then the mail man comes, and it's all good again.

For a minute.
 
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Reactions: Woz
On the contrary, one stock EC30 unit caters for all possible race & threading combinations.

Is this what you had in mind?

https://www.necoparts.com/Templates/att/610-CombinationChart-A Model-1.pdf?lng=en

Part 4 and Part 5 - if combined, and could account for the smaller OD French steerer could work but I fear Part 2 won't sit properly on anything, and as a result will foul with Part 7. A potential solution, Part 4 and Part 5 is made into Part 45_Ver_1.0_FR by @Mickeyspinn with his new toys.

All finished off with two metric lock nuts you mentioned earlier. God I need a drink after that.
 
@Woz

That's the neco. I've had a look at the bog standard Cane Creek and it works too, however, it has a steel 26.6 race, so not as good as a split alloy ring made for 27.0 to fit a 27.0 fork.

The only difference (assuming you can sort out the preload on parts 2,3,4,5) to running this with a threadless fork is that French fork is 25.0 instead of 25.4mm. That's a shim job in my mind, as part 5 is a compression ring and it doesn't care whether it goes round a 25.4 or shimmed 25.0+0.4.
Part 5 is doing the centering of the steerer in the bearing.
Part 2 only does the pre-load from above.

The pre-load can be achieved via Sheldon's hack (two locknuts threaded onto steerer, pressing down on part 2). I'm trying this.

Alternatively, a ahead-conversion quill can be inserted into the steerer, fixed in place, and then modified to be able to generate the preload (Mickey's idea). Which was what I was getting at in my proposed approach. The star nut will probably need re-thinking and I do not like that particular adapter, but the concept would be the same.

None of the parts are fundamentally working in a way they were not designed to, but the second approach hinges on the assumption that the ahead quill never moves. And quills do move unfortunately.
 
Is this what you had in mind?

https://www.necoparts.com/Templates/att/610-CombinationChart-A Model-1.pdf?lng=en

Part 4 and Part 5 - if combined, and could account for the smaller OD French steerer could work but I fear Part 2 won't sit properly on anything, and as a result will foul with Part 7. A potential solution, Part 4 and Part 5 is made into Part 45_Ver_1.0_FR by @Mickeyspinn with his new toys.

All finished off with two metric lock nuts you mentioned earlier. God I need a drink after that.
Spot on woz....it doesn't matter what type of headset it is at some point there has to be a true register to tell either a cup or a taper wedgey widget exactly what to do....otherwise it'll find something else to do 😄 probably of the naughty nature....using a sanded down quill adapter no matter how good you think you've gotten it ain't ever gonna be the kind of register you need for a bearing. A custom made quill adapter and removing the threaded part of fork steerer would work but needs to be machined to a damn good size fit in a very clean steerer tube too.
 
Chavez is your intention to use a tapered wedgey widget thing to centralise the top bearing and it sits on top of the threaded part of steerer?
Afraid that won't work....
 
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