Originally Posted by roscoe50
What the heck one can never have enough bikes. What are you currently working on? I'm a little freaked about working on the headset front fork setup on my new one. Do you know a good way to cut the forks other than a hacksaw? I was thinking about using a pipe cutter. Do you have to assemble the whole thing to get the right height on the stem? Not familiar at all with these so you'll have to excuse my ignorance.
The Reef was the first bike I ever set up with an integrated headset and carbon steerer so I too was wary about sawing on my new fork. Most of the shops in my area are swimming with attitude and see $$$ everytime someone walks in the door. Since I was determined to put the bike together on a fairly tight budget, I decided to do the fork myself; I've had chances to mess up much more expensive equipment in my life.
Unlike most integrated headsets, the Microtech headsets have sealed bearings with square shoulders. You want to grease the outside of one and press it into the top of the head tube using the appropriate tool - I improvised and used a threaded rod with some large washers. The fit is not as tight as a proper press fit; I think some call this and interference fit. The other bearing should be pressed onto the fork (place the thin ring supplied with the headset between the fork and the bearing). Here, the fit is a bit tighter and you want to use a tool like that used to press the lower race onto the fork in a traditional headset. For this I went to a shop and the mechanic was able to do this in about 5 minutes (one place wanted to charge me $45 for this, the second charged me $7!).
Once you have these bearings seated, you can insert the steerer through the headtube and by pressing down on the frame seat the lower bearing into the seat on the headtube (again, lightly grease the outside of the bearing). Slide the top ring (the thing that says Microtech) over the steerer to seat, add some spacers and install the stem. At this point, you can see where you need to cut the stem. I initally used a stack of spacers totalling 30 mm, which is close to the maximum height recommended by most carbon fork manufacturers; you can always cut off more later.
When you are certain you have the correct height, pop the fork out (hit the top of the steerer with a rubber mallet - the lower bearing will stay with the fork), clamp the steerer gently in a vise and cut. There is a special tool that you can get that acts as a cutting guide but I just used a hoseclamp and took care to assure that I was cutting square. Use a hacksaw blade with 32 teeth per inch and don't breathe the dust; clean up with a file when finished. See the Park Tool website for more ideas - of course they will suggest you need every tool in the book....