Originally Posted by terrymorse

I'm saying that compression plugs were not intended to solve this "problem".

The whole "compression plugs protect fragile carbon steering tubes from being crushed by mean old stem clamps" story was something people made up, long after compression plugs were introduced. I haven't seen any analysis to back up this claim, and I've been looking for at least 10 years. The story has the sound of bike mechanic scuttlebutt -- plausible sounding, but with no engineering to support it.