Originally Posted by
1987cp
Okay, potentially dumb question since I live exclusively in threaded-steerer territory: On one of his personal rides, Sheldon Brown shows how he raised the bars on a threadless steerer without using spacers by securing the headset with a correctly-sized seatpost binder. If the ID of a given threadless steerer is already suitable for quill use, couldn't a person just use a binder to secure the fork and thereby swap to a quill stem without modifications?
in theory, yes. in practice would be a little more complicated. the standard way of setting a threadless system involves using a top cap and star nut, applying the appropriate pressure to the system until you tighten the stem. this same method should be applied to securing the seatpost binder, which you would need spacers or a thick stem to do anyway. why sheldon would use a $10 seatpost binder instead of a few $.50 spacers is beyond me... anyway, if you did this, you would then need to remove the star nut or just hammer it all the way down the steertube to provide room for the quill stem. if you don't have a star nut it is VERY difficult to properly tighten a threadless headset.