Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - fork too short

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yarr
04-28-06, 11:12 AM
I recently aquired a 1" threaded carbon straight blade fork that like a whole lot but is about 1/2 inch too short for my headtube. i did some searching and someone mentioned this

How much too short is it? I had a fork that was slightly too short for the headset I'd just installed, so I basically made the fork "longer" by turning it on a lathe, extending the distance from the fork top to the crown race.
has anynone else done this, i dont quite understand it but since i know someone with a metal lathe id rathr let them do it so i dont have to ship it out to a framebuilder or something..

biff
04-28-06, 11:19 AM
He's talking about turning the headtube down (making the HT shorter) a mm or two on each side. You can also do this with a headtube facer instead of a lathe. Unless your fork is only a couple of mm short (and I wouldn't really recommend it anyway), you're out of luck.

Edit:

Errr....he's actually talking about cutting the crown race down more. Sorry, didn't really read your full post. DEFINITELY not an option on your carbon fork.
Carbocation
04-28-06, 11:30 AM
Is the fork too short for the headtube, or too short for the headtube + headset? If it's the latter, you can try finding a new headset with a shorter stack height.

mcatano
04-28-06, 11:32 AM
The king gripnut is supposedly quite handy in these situations.
dirtyphotons
04-28-06, 11:34 AM
i agree that sounds like a bad idea. threaded forks are pretty common and cheap these days, i'd check the bike shops around, they can often give you a deal on a used one.

or, if you really like that one bernie will fix it right:
http://www.mikkelsenframes.com/pages/803200/index.htm
poopncow
04-28-06, 11:54 AM
1/2 inch is way too much to make up by turning the seat for the crown race or a shorter stack headset. May be just maybe if you face the fork, get an effectively shorter headset (king?) AND take some off the head tube..... But that is way way too much trouble. The cost in labor and material may not be worthwhile.