Back in the early 70s I personally experienced the joy of having a steering tube break off at the headset adjustable cup. I was riding down the street with the disconnected bars in my hands.

By some stroke of luck I was able to shove the stem back into the broken steerer and stop the bike. It was on a customer's cheap bike boom bike that I was test riding.

After that I developed the habit of bouncing the front wheel up a down a few times before checking out any bike that came into our shop. I found at least one or two with failed brazes at the fork crown/steerer that way. The brake bolts were all that were holding the forks on.

Now about the OP's idea... do you have 6 friends?

Chas.