headtube length, have i had a bit of ebay madness

clynmor

hi

i went and bought some forks of ebay,
a little moment of madness,
as the steerer is a short 173mm

i didnt measure up before i bid and won,

i havent received the fork yet,
but am wondering if i've done a boo-boo,

the bike is a giant xtc se 2006, 17in frame,
without disassembling anything i roughly measured the outside of headtube, which was 127mm
and the stem roughly 40mm
which gives a grand total of 167mm
hopefully 6mm spare

does that sound right how ive roughly measured it or do you thinks its a c0ck up,
and the fork going straight back on ebay

cheers
carolyn,

redvee

You might be OK, but the only way to find out will be the hard way, ie fitting and finding out they are too short. Got any spacers on your steerer tube?

stu8975

You need to measure from the bottom of the crown race (not just the frame headtube) to the top of the stem then deduct 3mm (your steerer tube should sit 3mm below the top of your stem when correctly fitted). Measurement should be taken between red lines in piccy

clynmor

ive got spacers on at the moment but just measured the headtube,
like in the picture at the bottom red line and then below the first spacer
then measured just the stem,

so it should then be as i calculated 167mm and if i deduct 3 mm then its 164mm
without spacers,
hopefully that means 9mm to play with

ive got my fingers crossed,
cant wait for my forks to turn up,

can you get stems which are shorter height wise as oppposed to length?

stu8975

There maybe a couple of mm differance between a stems stack height but you would need to find out the measurements before buying...you will prob need 1 spacer below your stem to use to pre-load the bearings...what's the measurement of your current spacer height (all of them)?

clynmor

i think theres about 20 -25 mm of spacers at the mo,

currently running 80mm forks but the new ones arae 100mm,
so would probably use less spacers anyway

stu8975

Well as long as the steerer length is sufficient you should be ok, if you were dropping the stem a lot (ie no spacers) you could end up with all kinds of neck/arm pain. Well hope the new forks fit and they bounce around like skippy the kangaroo....boing boing

clynmor

also running some flat bars,
was gonna revert back to some risers i think,
so that should bring it up aswell

cheers for all the help
will update you on how it goes when the forks arrive

clynmor

just an update,
all went fine with fitting had plenty spare,
enough to fit a 10mm spacer under the stem,
as predicted, phew!

happy riding,
cheers again

redvee

Glad it all worked out for you.