Mountain Biking - Forks?

Hey guys,

Recently I got a bike on sale, online because it was old, but not that old, 'bout 1 year. It has a threaded suspension fork. If I want to replace the fork and the hole in the bike for the fork 1 1/8 in diameter, can I just change the thing that holds the fork and the handle bars together(someone telll me what that object is called) and the fork without problem?

You will also need a new headset (bearing thingy)!

As long as the original fork is 1-1/8" you should be able to do this relatively inexpensively. I've seen decent forks for under $200, headsets for under $25 and some stems on closeout as cheap as $4!

The trick is finding them all in one place to save on shipping!

L8R

Uhh... I remembered a lot of the words a weeks ago but I don't know why but I fergot them. Why do I need to change the bearings (and where do they go? like right under the steerer tube hole or really close to the stem? Sry about all the questions but I completely got my head brainwashed somehow.

And...what are the advantages of a threadless fork compared to the threaded fork, other than availability?

O.k., here's a lesson on bike terminology. I'll try to make this brainless easy!

Frame, you know what that is. Parts of the frame consist of the headtube, the top tube, bottom tube, seat tube, chainstay, seat stay, bottom bracket and dropouts.

The headtube is the almost verticle tube that the forks slide through. The top tube is the horiz tube that goes from the handlebars(headtube) to the seat. the downtube goes from the headtube to the bottom bracket (where the cranks go through). The seatube is where DUH, the seat goes in. The chainstay is the smaller tube going from the bottom bracket to the dropout (that holds the rear wheel) the seat stay goes from the seatube to the dropout.

The headset consists of two bearings, races, cups and caps and these are press fitted into the headtube. There is one bearing on the top and one on the bottom. The steerer tube comes up and rotates on these bearings.

The advantage of a threadless vs threaded is one availability, and two the threaded would CONSTANTLY come loose. Plus, the overall height of the headset (Stack height) can be reduced using a threadless headset (no top nut and lock nut). Plus, it's lighter weight. Also, with the focus on lighter weight, many fork manufacturers started making their steerer tubes out of aluminum. Well when you thread aluminum, it doesn't last. Plus, if you insert a quill stem (wedge bolt thingy) it could destroy an aluminum steerer by the force exerted by the quill (metal wedge).

A threadless stem goes around the outside and compresses the aluminum steerer tube. Aluminum is strong in compression (squeezing) but weak in tension (pushing out from inside). So, that is why threadless became popular and is now the standard.

Whew, that's a lot of typing, even for me!

L8R

Wow...talk about insane typing spree.

I need a life! Actually I rode yesterday and was just all pumped up and couldn't sleep!

L8R