Hi,

I ride a 29, supposedly Medium size frame, and my current fork's steerer tube from crown to top is 190mm approximately.

I will change the fork soon. The fork I am buying has a 220mm steerer tube length. I want to know these:

• What is the recommended steerer tube length? Should I cut mine to 200mm or something? I tried to simulate a 20mm increase in height of the handlebar and it seems it does not make much difference.
• Is it true that is it recommended to not use more than 30mm spacers between the stem and top headtube? If yes, does this mean, from this, I can guess the correct steerer tube length by placing 30mm spacers under the stem plus the stem and cap and cut the excess?
• What is your steerer tube length, assume you ride a 29 bike?

Thanks

My steerer tube length should have 0 to do with what yours is. I'm 6'5 and have a larger bike, therefore a longer steerer tube.

1- insert new fork into head tube.
2- add spacers as needed.
3- mark location where stem should be.
4- remove fork and measure the steerer from crown to your mark. There ya go- that's how long it should be.


A steel steerer can hold more spacers than a carbon steerer.
30mm of spacers is consistently claimed, but conservative.
40 or 45 wouldn't make me think twice and I've seen that listed for some brand name forks too. It all depends on how you ride and how hard you are on the front end. One of my kids has a carbon road fork with 45mm of spacers...she is 70# nothing will happen.
There is not definitive point at which your fork's steered will snap.

Either way you are pretty screwed, if I'm reading your post correctly. You have 30mm of steerer above your head tube and in that space you need to squeeze the top of the headset and stem?

As long as it's long enough you can have it how you like. As it's longer than the old one, no worries there. Use spacers for the extra length, you can mount spacers on top of the stem as well as below it, can flip the stem upside down too, to get the handlebar precisely where you want it.

I suggest riding with spacers above and below the stem, for a few months ,

play with height, swapping spacers, over and under.. until you find what is most comfortable..


then have the shop cut it .. their saw guide is going to give a perfect cut..

Why cut it? Seriously,as a taller person I can't stand it when I am looking at used forks/bikess that have been ruined by someone thinking they need to cut off the "extra" steerer length.

An excess length of steerer tube poking out above the stem may become a safety hazard in a crash. Also, it looks ugly, at least in my eyes.