CrossChain

I'm looking to buy at a nice, never built-up frame & fork. Steel frame, 1 inch threadless fork, takes a 1 inch conventional headset. Will I be able to use a "traditional", one-piece quilled stem (Nitto Technomic in this case)? Thanks.

ninjaman

nope!

ninjaman

quill stems are also commonly referred to as "threaded"

HillRider

The above answers are correct. You have to use a threadless stem.

There have been questions in the past about threading the steerer on a threadless fork and the overwhelming consensus is DON'T do it. Starting threads (not just extending existing ones) is very difficult to do properly and many threadless steerers don't have enough wall thickness to safely take threading.

Soil_Sampler

You could, but why would you want to?
These are very hard to find in 1"
https://www.bikeparts.com/search_resu...p?ID=BPC312020
Easton makes something similar, called the "BearTrap".

GV27

All answers above are correct.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not the cap and star-nut that holds the headset together in a threadless setup. It's actually the stem. The cap and star nut are really just used to set the pre-load and as a safety device - if the stem loosens up the cap backs it up and keeps the bars coming off in your hands. I've actually seen serious weight-weenies take off the cap and drive the star nut down and out after setting it up. Works just fine. Not very smart, but it works.

OTOH, if you used a quill step you wouldn't have the cap or the stem holding things together.

Iowegian

I was going to ask the same thing and yes, I understand how a fork is held with a threadless setup.

To answer the obvious question, my problem is that I bought a nice frame with threadless fork for cheap (or so I thought...) only to find the fork had been cut too short. There is almost room for the stem but either I need to find a 'shorter' stem and/or shorter stack height headset or take my chances that the stem will hold with the steerer cut 1 cm too short.

Then I thought of the myriad of quill stems I have lying around. Assuming I used a separate collar for the headset, would the quill stem fit and would the steerer be strong enough for the expansion bolt? I'm pretty sure Sheldon has a bike with an ad-hoc collar so the stem can be adjusted independently of the headset. Unfortunately, the site seems to be down at the moment.

Jack's mate

I did "sucessfully" mate a quill stem to a threadless fork and headset system. I'm not sure I should admit to it, though, because it probably wasn't as safe as it needed to be and it was on my father-in-law's bike. Like Iowegian, I was trying to use parts I already had (threadless fork and headset) and he wanted one of those funky suspension stems. So I gave it a shot. I used a seat collar clamp on the steer tube.

I cut the steerer down to fit the clamp like you would when measuring for the typical threadless system, leaving space between the top of the steerer tube and the bottom of the lip of the clamp. I used the star nut and cap to set the headset bearing tension and then knocked the star nut out the bottom of the steer tube so I could put the quill stem in. When I got the headset tensioned, I tighten the seat clamp to the steer tube just like you'd tighten a threadless stem. The quill stem fit and held very nicely to steer tube, which I put in as far as I could.

I figured that even if the seat clamp came loose, the fork would get loosy-goosy but my F-I-L would still be able to steer and control the bike. he and I both rode that bike regularly for a year without a problem. But I decided it was too questionable a setup, and I knew his local LBS wouldn't touch the thing should he need an adjustment if I wasn't available, so I switched to a conventional threaded fork. And honestly, if I had had a two bolt clamp like a threadless stem, or simply a wider clamp to grab more of the steer tube, it would probably still be that way.

And no, I wasn't trying to off my F-I-L; I kinda like the guy.

Bob Dopolina 

The 1" to 1/1/8" converter might be of use here. Are you familiar with these? It is basically a quill set-up for threadless that slides into the 1" steerer and then flares out to 1 1/8" at the top, allowing you to use a 1 1/8" stem. This would also give you the extra 1cm you are looking for.

Anyone have any thought on this?