dnomel .... I've got a Reynolds 531C full chrome fork from a '85 60cm. Gitane racing bike I'll sell you for $25 plus shipping. ISO, 204mm steerer. Recessed 700c wheel. You can cut it to fit. If you think it's ugly, you have bad taste. Whatever you do... get a proper fork.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=169631

The repair described by the OP would put the adhesive in shear. That won't work for any length of time.

Seems a lot easier to just get a new fork. Then you never have to worry about what you did with the old one.

Actually the portion of the glue inside between the stem and the steer tube that is in shear is the good spot of the joint. We always want to create a joint that uses any glue in shear as this is the glue's strongest way to support any load. It's the butt joint with stem inside which will be prone to stretching and flexing where the epoxy is under alternating values of tension and compression that is the issue.

They make threaded and threadless steering tube extensions. Harris bike shop carries them.

Back in the early 70s I personally experienced the joy of having a steering tube break off at the headset adjustable cup. I was riding down the street with the disconnected bars in my hands.

By some stroke of luck I was able to shove the stem back into the broken steerer and stop the bike. It was on a customer's cheap bike boom bike that I was test riding.

After that I developed the habit of bouncing the front wheel up a down a few times before checking out any bike that came into our shop. I found at least one or two with failed brazes at the fork crown/steerer that way. The brake bolts were all that were holding the forks on.

Now about the OP's idea... do you have 6 friends?

Chas.

That would only work if you can get the top of the headset on. The OP's fork isn't long enough for that.

Thanks, I'm sure that's a very nice fork and a generous offer, but this is just a mechanical project/experiment. And I have tried mixing forks for different size frames before and had bad luck, something just doesn't feel right in the handling. That one looks kind of like it has less offset than likely suitable for this small frame.
I actually did put the parts of this project together dry just out of curiousity, and it felt doable. I hose clamped a shim onto the stem above the top nut of the headset to give this extension portion backing as the headset is tightened. tightened the stem into the fork first (fully inserted, actually bottomed out into the intact fork), then tightened the headset. Felt pretty good and could probably do a short smooth test ride like that without glue, just the shim and hose clamp above. Definitely not something I would trust for anything more than a level test run, but it was pretty easy to set up and could allow me to at least get a feel for this fork, sometimes you don't need much to get an idea about a fork's suitability.

You meed dimensions for your goal , fork crown race face to the axis of the wheel. fork rake , blade length
. in other words the bottom of the fork and its geometry matters
and if you get a fork with those ,and there an abundance of steerer tube youre in a good place..
dont disparage a fork thats on the long side its better than too short..
Of course you cab turn the frame over to a custom builder and say make me a fork for this
and I want XYZ handling , and there will be something offered to work.

Get a new fork... aluminium forks suck hard.

And when they break... it is spectacular.

Nice fork... 25.00 you say ?

Why not cut the steer tube at the halfway point. Thread the inside of both pieces with a pitch corresponding to a long treadled bold or a piece of threaded rod. Screw it all together and have fun.

Yes, I got a local offer for it today though. I've had it on Pittsburgh Craigslist for about a week. I think it's a steal really, but it's been collecting dust for 20 some years and as they say, use or lose it. .... or in this case sell it. If the guy flakes out, I'll let you know.

Most people are misunderstanding the "fix." The cut and JB epoxied section of steerer would be glued to the stem and serve only to thread the headset onto, right?

It's still a bad idea, but not as life threatening as many have implied (or stated).

The JB will fail, and then you will have a very wobbly front end. Most likely to happen standing and wrenching the bars on a climb, I would think, but it could absolutely cause a bad crash if it pulls apart downhill/in a turn.

I would convert to threadless or find a new fork or frame.

Right, just attached to the stem. A bad idea for a fix, an idea out of frustration for a 1cm too short steerer, and again sorry for the confusion. But it may end up being useful in that if this fork feels ok on a careful test ride, at least I'll have a reference for a replacement. I might start holding onto old forks and bb's just to have around as measuring instruments. I tried another fork previously with this frame and it just didn't feel right, too little offset I'm thinking.

Again, instead of JB - use something like Loctite 680: http://www.henkelna.com/cps/rde/xchg...UID=0000000HWK, or perhaps Loctite 638: http://tds.loctite.com/tds5/docs/638-EN.PDF

With that you might still have alignment issues, but with decent surface prep I honestly don't think it'd come apart for you.

Thanks, looks interesting and better than jbweld. I think for now I will leave this thing unglued with the shim/clamp in place as that should be sufficient for a short and careful test ride of the fork, that's about all I would do anyway at this point even if it was glued together. It is interesting though to try to imagine what normal forces are acting along the steerer tube with a quill stem and threadless. I'd like to understand better how and where they break.

For "normal" use, most bicycles have an ample safe margin in their design.
The steerer tube failures that I've seen have all been fatigue related, in which case it doesn't take that much for something to act as a stress riser and eventually prove fatal to the structure.

Asphalt sandwich coming up !!!

Ask George Hincapie about broken aluminum forks, i.e. the 2006 Paris-Roubaix.

Excuse me while I kiss the sky... doh, wrong way up!

Chas.

His I believe was a Carbon fork with an aluminum steerer.
It lost to Cobbles Of the route to Roubaix.