Can I use the above stem riser with my 1" steerer so that I will have enough tube left to adapt my frame to a threadless headset? I believe it could be perfectly hidden underneath the spacers, and it might be stable enough, too. (road bike)

I went with a 1" CK nothreadset because I found it for $65.

The issue is that I cannot afford a new fork right now. This riser would cost $15.

What are you trying to accomplish and what fork,stem and bars are you using. This is not safe and not designed for that app. There are a lot of other adapters to maybe fix your ride for about same price.

That would be incredibly unsafe. Buy a new fork or just stick with threaded.

you have no headset pre-load adjustment with that, at minimum in addition to all the spacers and stem you need a compression top cap from a carbon fork spec. as a star nut prevents re tightening the quill bolt at the bottom of that piece, so you need the removability of the compression expanding top cap
for the headset adjustment.

BBB part # BHP20 is a quill based stem raiser, its inside the steerer.
at the top of the bolt that pulls up the wedge,
the bolt is made to be internally threaded, inside the hex socket,
so there is a threadless headset adjustment,
thru the cap on top of the whole stack
they supply a number of shims keyed to a groove in the quill ,for the threadless stem to grip.

In the US bike Mine has the BBB import distributorship.. NL company Taiwan manufacturing. $25.

Sounds like an interesting and maybe workable idea. I'm not sure I'm understanding completely, but is it ok if the upper threadless headset is on the threaded part of the fork steerer?

My threaded headset is shot. I'm trying to use what tube I've got (5/4 inch showing) on my threaded fork before I drop 80-100 on a new one.The threads would not be clamped so I do not see an issue with it in that respect. I don't understand the issue of tightening the riser. You put it in, tighten the hell out of it, and forget about it. Then it's just part of the steerer tube and I should be able to just use the headset and starnut like normal.

Do you think that tightening the star nut screw would pull out the riser?

What if I bought the riser and then had it welded on the steerer so that no joint was protruding?

Very good quality threaded headsets can be had for less than 30 bucks. Why spend more on a workaround?

And in spite of all those detailed explainations - you sill want to go ahead anyway?

I`m going to completely agree that its not only unsafe - if your headset is shot and only the races need replacing - thats usually only 45 in parts taxes included is you have a low end road bike or are stuck for money and just need a temporary fix.

But its your bike and if eventually things get out of hand and you have to take it to your LBS after those `mods`, I`m sure they`ll be happy to help you out. Happens all the time! Just costs a lot more to undo the additional damage than it would have if you brought it in in the first place!

We get a lot of that kind of thing here. Everyone recommends against what the OP wants to do but they don't want to hear it.

Anyway, the best advice I can give the OP is to sell the CK headset and use the money to buy something proper for your bike. Nashbar has a Ritchey 1" threaded headset for $22. Look here:

https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product..._202327_202438

Selling the CK should even let you come out money ahead.

New headset $20.00, new adjustable 1" riser adjustable rise stem $40.00 and this will raise your bars up about 6" higher than a stock stem and probably longer cables and housing will be needed, and way to much leverage to the steer tube, your done and won't get killed. Your idea is interesting but you will need a lot more parts to make that work, headset, spacers, stem, and cables ect. and 1" tread less stems are even harder to find.

I feel ridiculed and see that you may feel ridiculed. Let's have a party.

I never said I was going one way or the other. It would be a general tendency for some OP with a certain mindset to want to stick to that mindset. I am completely open to hear opinions, as well. If it sounds like I'm not gravitating to your solution or your cyber-friend's solution, then I would like to see you keep your emotions to yourself. I also had trouble visualizing the technical issues.

I'm building up a frame from scratch. I have some 31.8 bars around that I would like to use. I like threadless stems cause they are readily available. I like the durability of a Chris king. I need a 1" threadless headset anyways for other future builds, should I want to switch it out.

I figure since it's a used carbon fork I ought to get it replaced anyways, and I will. I wanted to try my presumptuous idea because I thought it would be a short term solution.

The cost of getting new bars, threaded stems, and headset is greater than or equal to getting a threadless stem, new fork, and headset. (might I be able to recover some cost from selling the fork that's 13 years old?). If it's more, I would find it to be worth it as I will never have to replace this headset again (and got for half price!)

Does anyone want to trade their 1" untapped fork for my cannondale carbon slice fork from 1998?

If it were a steel fork a skilled well equipped frame builder could replace the steerer tube, ..
But since its a crabon fork, set the CK one aside , get a low stack height threaded headset like Shimano's
and use the thing as is..

First I`ll apologize if you felt ridiculed. I was just asking myself why you wanted opinions if you were dead set on doing this any way.

OK so lets have a look at what youLd have to go through to make this a workable `endever`.

Lets start by putting the bike in a stand, removing the existing stem and bars and front wheel.

OK now lets take off the adjusting and retaining screws on the upper headset and remove the fork.

Please note that this is the point at which a $5 set of bearings is the solution that most people were trying to point you to and you could have just put everything back together again.

But we`re going to disgard the bearings and remove the existing bearing cups instead. Some people use a hammer and screwdriver. Personally I `ve never liked that method. I`d take the largest socket you have that will fit inside the tube and put it an a minimum 10in drive extension. Tap that with a hammer on alternate sides and you`ll work out the old seats without scarring the frame.

You`ll need to check and confirm that the headset is the correct size and that both the frame and headst are a tolerance match for a press fit. OK - lets assume they are.

The new bearing cups need to be pressed in with a bearing press.No - you can`t put them in with a hammer. You need a threaded rod that has a rigid disk at the end that conforms to the inner profile of your bearing race so that it`ll pull it straight down evenly. a bit of grease helps too.

Assuming the profile of the new bearings is different from the old, you`ll also have to remove / install a crown race on the fork.
So lets assume the bearing cups are in. This is where there are too many unknowns. You can reinstall the fork for fit with both the upper and lower bearing races in place.

Ideally, if you bought a low profile headset, you`ll have some threads left at the top. The old upper bearing race is not useful, just the upper headset adjustment nut and maybe the keyed washer. If (IF) you have enough threads exposed, that old adjustment can be used to preload the bearings.

Problem is - this is the point at which that threaded fork was trimmed to size. and its unlikely that you`ll have enough thread by accident. If you get lucky then I`d suggest you drill and tap and add a couple grub screws to stop the adjustment nut from coming undone.

If you get this far with success - the rest is easy. If you can` use that adjustment nut - it gets a lot more complicated. So maybe you should check a few dimensions before starting.

by low profile do you mean integrated?

With the top race and bottom race installed, I would get about an inch of threaded steerer, which is not going to work with a threadless stem to my knowledge. Though, aren't some of the true 1" stems shorter than their 1 1/8" counterparts? How much weaker is threaded tubing? The headset has been disassembled, but I haven't removed the cups yet. Thanks for the socket idea. The races were all pitted.

Like I said, I want to use this threadless headset and I don't mind getting a new fork even if I have to wait. Just getting excited about getting it to work and was wondering if their was an option for using my current fork. There isn't. So i'll wait. It's a learning process. I will pop out the cups tonight to see how the new ones fit.

Another option I have is disassembling my other bike's headset which needs to be rebuilt anyways. it is threaded.

Some of this can be a little complicated to visualize over the Internet so re_read these postings a few times.

IF you actually have 1 inch of thread extending above the top of the threadless headset once its completely installed then - you`re home free!

In fact - you may even have to cut that threaded steering tube to shorten it further! The adjustment nut on a threaded headset is not threaded all the way through on most current models and some also have a gasket at the top. It`s actually designed to cap the steering tube and so the steering tube is normally cut so that that the headset locking nut can thread onto it and made contact with the keyed washer under it and lock everything in place. When properly installed the steering tube does NOT extend above the locking nut.

If you can get to that point, than the item you started this post with will fit down the steering tube and you can proceed from there. The threadless bearing preload will no longer be an issue because you did it with the upper headset locking nut.

Let me know if thats clear enough. I had serious reservations because 9 times out of 10 the steering tube is to short to cap. You may have lucked out!

I may have missed it with the lengthy posts, but what do you have against buying a new 1" threaded headset to use with your fork and threaded stem?

I don't have a fork to trade, but how long is steerer tube on your fork? Send me a PM if you'd like to sell it.

It will be fine, just make sure you tension the headset well: Sheldon Brown says you can tension it just with your body weight, but I find a string tied to the stem and the fork works much better.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/handsup.html

To the naysayers: smarter more experienced people than you have recommended worse.


OR, do like Burton said and just use the locknut to tension the threadless headset.

The OP wants to use a 31.8 mm handlebar and 1" quill stems with that size handle bar clamp are pretty much non-existant.

I would suggest just replacing the current pitted headset with a new threaded one. Then you can get a "threadless stem" adapter that looks a lot like the item you pictured in your first posting. That will let you use any threadless stem and matching handle bars.

I wasn't ridiculing you but the consensus here was that your first proposal was unsafe and not recommended and you didn't want to accept that conclusion.

Uhhh no, if you really read what Sheldon wrote and what the OP first proposed you would realize the two are not at all the same. Sheldon was discussing leaving a threadless steerer extra long and using the extra length to allow the handlebars to be placed higher. He did not say anything about splicing an extra length of steerer onto the too short one and using it to fit a threadless headset.

I have bars that are 31.8, and I want threadless cause I have more stem choices. Also, when I replace the fork It'd best be a non-threaded fork cause there are more to choose from and require no modification. It's possible to use 31.8 bars with threaded headsets but I feel like in the long term I'm going to want a threadless headset.

Steerer is about 8.625"

So you're saying that I don't need to use spacers to carry the preload pressure, and I would use my top threaded headset nut (the small one) to preload it? Wouldn't the mean the top nut would rub against my top race? would I leave the part out that covers the bearing?

On the left is my campy veloce (shot) headset.
in the middle is the chris king. what am I using? do I still need to use a starnut? am I stuck with mounting the stem flush with the preload "top nut?"

I didn't say they were the same. I said what Sheldon proposed was worse.

There are several of companies making those steerer extenders/converters. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using them as they are designed and marketed to be used...which is to extend the unthreaded portion of the steerer and use it just as you would any other extra long threadless steerer.

The OP wouldn't be "using it to fit a threadless headset". He'd be using it to fit the stem on an otherwise too short steerer and the only thing he'd be sacrificing is the top cap, but there are plenty of perfectly reliable ways to tension a headset that don't involve a top cap from expanding spacers to using a piece of string. As I said, Sheldon Brown even says you can do it by simply leaning on the stem, although I personally prefer a more careful method.

The threading on the steerer is irrelevant. It's just a steerer too short to fit the stem and extending it is probably even safer than extending a steerer to raise the bars because there's less leverage.

I could still waste a star nut and use the top cap for cosmetics, correct?

I'm trying to visualize where all the parts are going to go. Are you saying the upper race of the threadless headset is going to sit on the threads of the old fork? If true, I doubt it'll stay straight. There's enough play there that the upper bearing cup will wiggle around and destroy the bearings.

I just test fitted the bearing cap and there appears to be no play at all, but my estimations may be inaccurate. There's a rubber ring in there that might absorb any vibrations, but I could be wrong. The threads are something like 75%-90% tapped, I would imagine. So that would leave 10-15 thousandths of an inch off the total diamater of the tube, if my estimation is right. I don't wanna take a chance unless you're sure that I wouldn't be able to tell and it is indeed affecting my bearings. I don't know a lot about different headset designs, but I can say that the bearing cap (and rubber ring) is the only thing making contact with steerer, and I'm not exactly sure if the vibrations would be as damaging to the bearings as they would be to the cap (or both?). Maybe it has to be installed and tensioned for me to even tell if there is play.

Oh, here's a diagram of the headset. The steerer does not make direct contact with the bearings.

There are a few things I`d like to mention about that article.
(a) Sheldon specifically stated that even what he was doing was NOT recommended for 1in steering tubes or steering tubes made of carbon fibre. According to what I recall from this post, the OP has a 1in steering tube.
(b) The configuration that Sheldon put together was SIMILAR to what the OP whants to do. but there are CRITICAL diffirences.

For example, Sheldon installed a long sleeve with an integrated clamping system over a tube of continuous diameter. The OP wants to install a steering tube entender which will have a tapered profile in the area that would be clamped using a set-up like Sheldons and in the area that the spacer rings would fall according to how the OP first described his intentions. Neither or those could be considered `safe` because there would be too much chance for play.

And lets not forget the most import element -experience. Sheldon had the experience and background to analyze available components and identify and seperate workable parts combinations from potential problems. The OP is attempting to do something similar and is asking for help before even starting.

So lets be clear. There`s a chance that the OP has a combination of parts that MIGHT make this feasable. That doesn`t change the fact that it`s neither cost effective nor ideal as a solution and any info I`m personally providing I consider similar to addressing an emergency repair with stop-gap solutions using whatever`s on hand.

But this guy certainly won`t be the first to do that nor the first person here with more time than money. Personally if the solution is workable even on a short term basis than I`d be interested in how it turns out.

A few years back at least one manufacturer was using these steering tube extenders 9With threaded headsets) in $1,500 bikes so my only real concern is preloading that bearing system. If it can be preloaded with a threaded locking nut independently of the steering tube extension then IMO safety issues have been addressed.