Originally Posted by
jonTu
It's different in that most of the material is removed from the back of the stem on the FSA, so there's about 1 vertical centimeter of steerer exposed between two horizontal "bands" of aluminum that wrap around the back (looking at it from behind), where the bolts are. Many other brands of stems are designed with a lot more aluminum against the steerer at the back, a la Ritchey or Thomson. There's lota and lots of stems on the market with most of the material removed at the back, so it's not unique to FSA by any means. What I'm saying is that it seems to me like it would be preferable to distribute the pressure on the back of the steerer tube over as much surface area as possible, and the FSA stem designs do a pretty poor job of that.
You make a really good point about the positioning of compressor under the bolts. I'd be interested to hear if it was in the right place on the steerers that broke.
2 0f 3 three yes...I installed them when I built the bikes. The third had the long Cannondale plug.
Three different forks on three different bikes. The two I installed were installed correctly and the forks were cut with a 32tpi hacksaw and a Park guide.
It has little to do with the plug as the deformaties in the steerer tubes are on the outside. It's all fine and well to say the plug should line up, but that won't stop the outside of the steerer from cracking, leading to the break.
I only use FSA plugs as they are easy to install and set and work very well.