Expanders for 1" carbon fork steerers?

synchronicity

Hello fellow cyclists,

I need two for my bikes, and they're IMPOSSIBLE to find here in Tenerife. I don't need the topcap, or the M5 bolt, just the alloy expander part. They are to fit two Easton 1" Superlight carbon forks...

If anybody knows where to buy 1" expander plugs intended for carbon fork steerers online, or has any spare ones lying around in their toolbox, I'd be super grateful if you could help me out...

Thanks very much! Les.

campagsarge

Tenerife sounds very appealing at this time of the year whilst I am huddled in the UK!

Is this what you are after - I guess it is just the star nut that you are after.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.a ... 20Expander

http://www.parker-international.co.uk/P ... e159b9a09c

http://www.parker-international.co.uk/P ... e159b9a09c

You only donwside is that the P&P to Tenerife may be more than the part itself.

synchronicity

10 pound??!!!


For that price I'd want to be sure it fitted. A few other 1" expanders haven't worked.

peanut

try ribble cycles
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/list2.asp ... ction=HSTZ

angry_cyclist

I had the same problem when I had to replace my old 1" carbon forks with a pair of Easton EC90 SL.
The internal diameter of the easton steerer is too big for most 1" bungs. I wasted around £30 buying the reynolds and fsa and M-part bungs (the latter is the one Ribble sent out) only to find they won't fit in the steerer.
I begrudgingly then used the easton beartrap headset adjuster that came with the forks. Although at first it did come undo I realised it has to be tightened more than you think - just enough that the headset bearings have the smallest resistance but not so that they are restricted in any way. Since I have had no issues with the beartrap.

Given that 1" bungs are now as rare as hens teeth and if you do find one then chaneces are it won't fit ast he Easton is desgined for the beartrap. I would say the beartrap is the only way to go.

synchronicity

Damn. That's exactly the forks I've got & just what I was trying to avoid. The bear trap things are just not reliable enough for a rental bike. They were coming back loose! :x
I'll try again with loctite, but man I can't wait to go back to 1 1/8" alloy steerers on my new Merida bikes.

aracer

synchronicity wrote:

Damn. That's exactly the forks I've got & just what I was trying to avoid. The bear trap things are just not reliable enough for a rental bike. They were coming back loose!

I don't understand the issue with the bung coming loose - some people take them out entirely to save weight :roll: and don't have an issue, since it's only required for adjusting the headset, not keeping it set (the stem bolts do that).

redvee

aracer wrote:

I don't understand the issue with the bung coming loose - some people take them out entirely to save weight :roll: and don't have an issue, since it's only required for adjusting the headset, not keeping it set (the stem bolts do that).

I ran my C'dale like that, no SFN in the 1 1/4" forks. Got the headset cheap hence the lack of SFN, just used a long bolt to tension the headset and clamped the stem up, could watch the top of the tyre all the time I had the bike.

Anonymous

You see everyone,you should have consulted the oracle aracer.He knows everthing.
Now kia wot y' oing Sunday Bikes wise.

angry_cyclist

aracer wrote:

synchronicity wrote:

Damn. That's exactly the forks I've got & just what I was trying to avoid. The bear trap things are just not reliable enough for a rental bike. They were coming back loose!

I don't understand the issue with the bung coming loose - some people take them out entirely to save weight :roll: and don't have an issue, since it's only required for adjusting the headset, not keeping it set (the stem bolts do that).

synchronicity said the beartrap comes loose - this isn't a bung, it is an alternative to a bung. Instead of using a bung to compress the headset and then tightening the stem to fix that postion on the steerer (at that point a normal bung can be removed), the beartrap works by fixing the stem and then tightening the beartrap. The beartrap ratchets up and takes out the slack. The compression is then always fixed by the beartrap expanding against the stem and the headset.

The problem is that the stem can slip and move against the steerer or the beartrap can collapse over the constant road vibration. The advantages are it weighs next to nothing and you don't need .8mm of spacers on the steerer.

My beartrap has done 500 miles without collapsing but the first weeks of having it it was getting loose all the time. The knack is to tighten it more than you think.

aracer

OIC - it's a poorly engineered version of the USE Ring-Go-Star, sorry for my incorrect assumption! Given they unfortunately only make those in 1 1/8" I'd suggest the correct soluition is actually the one you've already considered - use Loctite. For this problem that's not actually a bodge at all - Loctite is designed to prevent threads coming loose under vibration when there isn't a locknut or some other locking mechanism on the thread. Given the right grade of Loctite (I'd suggest starting with the normally available thread lock, but there are stronger versions if that doensn't do the job) it should totally solve the problem.

Hugh A

sjs cycles also do 1" bungs but whether they are the right type or not I wouldn't know. I'm sure they would be able to tell you though.

synchronicity

So far blue loctite seems to have worked... but only time will tell.