Fork issue or not?

willhub

I just felt like my front might have been a bit more wobbly than normal and catching the wind more, could be the wheel bearings as they seem a bit loose, but I thought I'd inspect the fork and found this towards the bottom of the steerer, I don't know if it's normal of indicated damage to the steerer?

Link to picture below: What do you think? - you can zoom in a bit to get a better look.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/100 ... 182158.jpg

ex-pat scot

willhub wrote:

I just felt like my front might have been a bit more wobbly than normal and catching the wind more, could be the wheel bearings as they seem a bit loose, but I thought I'd inspect the fork and found this towards the bottom of the steerer, I don't know if it's normal of indicated damage to the steerer?

Link to picture below: What do you think? - you can zoom in a bit to get a better look.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/100 ... 182158.jpg

Loo0ks like steerer crack to me. Not long before it snaps, resulting in faceplant and dental work.
I could be wrong, but it looks fairly clear.

wishitwasallflat

Looks like a crack - if you grab the steerer above and fork below and bend what happens to that crack? The nature of it though looks like it's along a junction, is it a carbon steerer and fork but bonded to an Al fork crown? If it's just a stress crack it's strange it's so perfectly aligned? Anyway no way I would ride that!

keezx

No crack but certainly damage and as above not advised to ride on with this.
This part of the steerer has the biggest loads in the bike frame.

svetty

Wouldn't ride that Will :shock: :shock:

sungod

strewth, just the sight of it gives me the fear

no way i'd ride that

while you've got it out, check that there's no sharp edges/whatever inside the headtube/headset that might have been a factor

veronese68

No way on earth I would ride that. As mentioned above check to see if you can find what's caused it.

willhub

Could it be that it's a cheapo carbon fork and I stop fairly quick and nearly always track stand at lights?

veronese68

willhub wrote:

Could it be that it's a cheapo carbon fork and I stop fairly quick and nearly always track stand at lights?

Don't think so, it looks far too neat to my mind.

willhub

Will these forks fit my Planet X frame?

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/FOPXSLALU/ ... r-team-alu

My current forks and previous forks fitted with these FSA Hiddenset bearings or whatever they were?

Dunno what year my Planet X frame is, I'm guessing they all use the same headsets anyway but here's a pic:

sungod

might be best to email/call px to check, ideally you want to match the length and rake of the original fork to keep the same handling but a little variation won't make much difference

the only part of the headset that goes with the fork is the crown race, as the old fork is toast you can just snip away the steerer to remove the crown race without damaging it, then re-use it on the new fork

but if you plan to change the headset it'll come with a new crown race anyway

Rightarmbad

If you use the little plus sign to blow the picture up, it is quite obvious that this is a mark on the steerer from a bodgy race installation.
It was fitted crooked and then bashed down the tube scoring a mark as it went.
You can see the downward smearing marks quite clearly.
There is no tearing of the fibres, just some epoxy scratching.

It has probably been like that for ages, so no problem. Just put a new headset on as that one is knackered.

willhub

There is copper greese on the fork, maybe that's the smear you're referring to?

But anyway I went and bought new forks: