Originally Posted by
ZManT
Hey folks - I just put together a new carbon fork on my road bike.
It's my first full carbon fork - it came with an expansion plug which was straightforward enough, but it also had this thin aluminum sleeve, split lengthwise, with the expansion plug.
I played around with it, but couldn't figure out how to use it - I assume it is for steerer tubes with a little larger inside diameter than mine.
I assembled the fork without it - it feels solid enough that way, and I'll do a shakedown ride tomorrow to see how it goes, but I thought I'd check with the helpful crew here on BF - is this an optional part?
Once the fork, headset and stem are assembled the plug and cap serve no purpose except to fill the hole on top of the steerer. The purpose of the plug is put a little preload on the headset bearings before you tighten the stem. You could take out the plug and ride thousands of miles or until there was a need to readjust the headset preload. One time I bought a stem at a swap meet and wanted to try it out on my ride back home. It wasn't quite as tall as the old stem so the cap did not bear down on it to set preload and nobody there had spacers. I enlisted the help of a friend to push down on the bars and stem as hard as he could and tightened the stem -- no problem.
Bottom line: if your headset is not loose you are OK.
Don in Austin