Probably the best day of progress after getting that crown race installed.

As I mentioned in my last post, a closer inspection of the crown race did not reveal any deformation from the earlier attempt at installation. Armed with some YouTube knowledge, a hammer, screwdriver and determination I was able to press the thing on with 6 or 7 hits.

Crown race installed on fork:




Once past this step I knew things would progress pretty quickly. The next step was to get an idea of how it all fit together and try to determine measurements for cutting the steer tube.

For anybody doing this, I suggest keeping all the headset parts together as much as possible. There's a diagram in the user manual but i think it would be difficult to determine which parts are which if it were to all fall apart.

Here's the head set top & bottom bearings, cap & star nut:




After loosely putting it all together, it was time to estimate some measurements to cut the steer tube. I put a seat on there so I could get a feel for sitting and riding a bit. What I ultimately did was compare my favorite setup with what I had on this to get as close as possible to what I thought would work.

Set up for determining steer tube length:



As you can see prior to this I also installed the chain and basic pedals.


Some of the best advice I have read on cutting the steer tube was "measure twice, take a break..then come back and measure twice again." So that's what I did. In fact I went to the hardware store to buy a hose clamp for the cutting guide.

Before cutting the tube in the right place, I did a test cut about 1/2" above my real measurement just to get a feel for how it would cut:




With a new blade on the hacksaw I went to work. After 4 or 5 minutes it was in two pieces:



After a bit of sandpaper to smooth the edges it was time to remount the fork on the bike:



I had about 1 1/2" of stem spacers to give me a little wiggle room on the handlebar height adjustment.

As you can see in the next picture, I read it is best to leave the steer tube cut lower than the top of the stem. I'll explain the reason for this in the next part...