publius

I purchased a NOS Felt F45 that a bike store was selling a few months back. I only got to ride it a couple times before winter hit, but I could tell that the frame was the right size and the fork was not. The fork was cut before I purchased it, but it's cut really low. I experimented with raising/lowering the saddle and a few other small adjustments, but the best I can tell I need to get the bars up in order to make it comfortable.

I read some threads about a strange looking device that does something like this, but I really like the bike and plan to keep it for some time, so I wouldn't mind replacing the fork and starting over with the steerer height. How much work is this? I would definitely take it to a shop to have the work done, but I'm not even sure how much labor there is to it. I searched on ebay and found NOS Felt forks for ~$100 and I was thinking labor would be ~$100 - does that sound right?

Also, I'm new to Chicago - any good bike shops that would do this for me in the Lakeview/Lincoln Park area (or elsewhere, I'm open to driving)? Thanks all.

Busta Quad

Flip the stem up.

Camilo

You really don't need to restrict yourself to a Felt fork unless you really want to. What you need to do is match (or get close) to the "Axle to crown length" and rake. That info should be available on line or from your dealer. Then just look for an aftermarket fork that is reasonably close to those specs. Then the decision is how light weight you'd like to be compared to the old one, and whether you want features like carbon or aluminum steerer or drop outs. There's a lot of comments in this forum and others like weightweenies.starbike.com and roadbikereview.com on various forks. But if you're not a real astute judge of subtlies (like me), just go with the felt or a known-name aftermarket fork and you'll be fine. I don't think the installation would be more than 30 minutes of shop time or an easy DIY.

Another thing regarding height: how high you want the bars is also an important factor, and will determine whether you can accomplish what you want with a new fork. Carbon-steerer forks generally only allow 40-50 mm max (<2") between the top of the head tube or head set and the bottom of the stem. Aluminum steerer forks allow more than that (not sure how much more though - check tech documents for after market forks like Reynolds, Easton, AlphaQ or even check with your Felt dealer if you're sticking with an OEM fork.

publius

The stem has zero rise so it wouldn't work, but even if it had some rise, it would be still be too low.

EDIT: I only paid ~$480 for a brand new bike (NOS + ebay live.com promotion = profit) so I don't mind sinking a little money into it to make it right.

publius

Thanks for this. I think I'll likely go with a Felt fork if I can find one since I like the look of the bike a lot. It has a carbon fork on there now, but there is only one, small spacer between the top of the head set and the stem, so I imagine coming up ~2 inches would be great.

Velo Dog

[QUOTE=publius;8421373]The stem has zero rise so it wouldn't work, but even if it had some rise, it would be still be too low./QUOTE]

There are all kinds of stems out there. before I'd spend the money on a new fork, I'd look around for one that would get the bars up where I want them.
This is another argument against threadless headsets, by the way. My two road bikes use quill stems, and I have at least four inches of adjustment at the turn of an allen wrench.

publius

[QUOTE=Velo Dog;8421667]


I thought about doing this. Assuming I want to bring the bars up two inches, what should I look for?

Camilo

You say that yours is a zero rise stem which I will take to mean 90 degree. The rise (or drop) is usually stated in terms of difference with 90 degrees. Example- an 8 degree flippable stem would be called +/- 8 or 82 / 98. Confusing yes but that's what you'll see.

So anything you get would be higher than you 0 / 90 stem. Commonly available stems are +/- 6 to 8 degrees and high rise stems are in the area of +- 14 degrees (which would be also called 76/104 or such). All of these stems are readily available anywhere, but I recommend you check out Performancebike.com Their house brand Forte stems are a great value, IMHO.

While there, consider getting an adjustable stem. That way you can tinker with the height and decide to either just keep the adjustable stem on there (there's a little weight penalty and fred-points bonus), or decide what angle stem you need in the long run.

This chart will help you figure out what angle and length changes you might have to make to achieve what you're looking for: https://www.habcycles.com/fitting.html

Make sure whatever stem you buy matches the length you need, the diameter of the steer tube (probably 1 1/8 inch, but could be 1") and the handle bar diameter (probably 31.8mm but could be 26 mm). Replacing the stem is an easy DIY with directions on how to do it on the park tools website as well as others or any bike repair guide.