Originally Posted by
chucky
No, because that's where the bolt to secure the quill riser will go (you know the one in the first pic you posted). You'll still have a top cap, but instead of connecting to the star nut it will connect to the wedge at the bottom of the quill and it won't be used for tensioning.
Yeah, but the reason Sheldon's mod is ill advised for a 1in steerer is because the seat clamp won't have enough friction to hold tight on the smaller circumference tube. The OP, however, will be maintaining bearing tension with either a normal threadless stem (in cascade with a normal quill) or a threaded race, all of which work fine with 1" steerers.
What happens inside the spacers is irrelevant. But what ARE critical differences are that the OP's setup will have less leverage to flex the headset area and uses better clamping mechanisms than a seatpost clamp, which makes it safer than Sheldon's setup. We can argue all day about the differences, but the point is that all the parts will function in their normal capacity, therefore it will work.
Sure, the OP doesn't have experience, but we do and mine says that what he's proposing is at least as safe as what Sheldon proposed. How much experience do you have tensioning threadless headsets without top caps? I have plenty and have found they're rather forgiving.
Why isn't it cost effective? Sounds like he has all the parts except the threadless stem (which he's going to reuse once he upgrades) and the quill. So it's a choice between buying the quill vs buying a new fork, with the quill being cheaper (at the expense of being heavier and requiring more labor to install and maintain than a bonifide threadless fork).
While it's true that quill stems aren't quite as secure as threadless stems, if they're secure enough to hold the handlebars than they're certainly secure enough to hold the bearing tension. After all, in the words of one bike manufacturer that doesn't spec top caps, "if you lose headset tension the worst that happens is you will need to adjust your headset, but if your handlebars come loose you're going to crash badly"
But, yeah, if given the option using the threaded top cap is probably better because there are fewer clamping mechanisms involved, but it's not a big deal.
The point is - the OP only needed to replace a threaded headset withanother threaded headset to be home free. That would have been the most cost effective (parts and labor) solution.
But the OP would also like to move to a threadless fork at some point in time - he apparently just doesn`t have the money at this point. But he managed to get hold of a threadless headset and apparently doesn`t have the patience to wait for a threadless fork and so wants to try this NOW.
Personally I don`t care what works for you and I don`t care what works for me. If this guy damages anything through inexperience it comes out of his pocket - not your`s or mine.
But if you want to drop by his place and give him a hand and let him benifit from your limitless experience -I`m sure he`ll appreciate it. But you`re also proving my point. Based on all that experience you apparently have. the only reason I can see for you making duplicate posts and creating some kind of long drawn out drama out of choosing a cheap pair of handlebars is because you`re bored and this is what you do for enternainment.
Several people asked you for specifics on the bike because if you were driving a threaded headset with a long gooseneck and a single bolt handlebar clamp - then the bars would only be a small a small part of your flex problem. But you consistantly avoided those requests.
Hope it was fun for you.