Originally Posted by
SquidPuppet
I remember someone in a previous thread pointing out one certain manufacturer that received an inquiry about threading one of their threadless forks. They advised against it, stating that their steerers were thinner and wouldn't tolerate the process. I can't remember the brand though. Ah...... found it. Surly.
I was going to make a 1-1/8" threaded bike a few years ago. I already had a threadless fork and the wall thickness was 1/16". Same as a one inch threaded fork, same as a 1-1/8" threaded fork. I got into some interesting debates on the subject here. Most folks saying that it was a bad idea. Since then, curiosity has caused me to measure every 1-1/8" threadless fork that crosses my path. So far they've all been the same. 1-1/8" OD and 1" ID.
That's really interesting. I can see it from Surly's point of view--they have no control over how people are going to thread their forks. If they start the die off-center, they're going to end up cutting way into the steerer once they've threaded any distance. Then when the steerer breaks a the base of the threads, here comes a big lawsuit.
Tempting to try it, though. I haven't looked into it, but it's presumably not rocket science to align a threading die correctly.