jberenyi

I bought one from a guy in Massachusetts that makes them on a lathe but I can't find the dude anywhere on the internet. Anyone know if this guy still makes aluminum inserts/sleeves for carbon forks? The one I bought worked great on my Reynolds and stopped the classic denting and stem slippage. With his, all you had to do was JB Cold Weld it in place and you were good to go.

travkat

wuuuuuuh?

nitropowered

Do you mean the glue in Alpha-Q insert? These are specific to Alpha-Q forks because of their thin wall steerer tube.

Or do you mean a compression plug?

Metzinger

Theory:
OP wants an insert that stiffens and supports the steerer from the inside. Tube with precise outside diameter.
On previous forks he's overtorqued the stem bolts and crushed the steerer/deformed the stem.
You glue in the tube, then ram the star-fangled nut into the inner tube. Solid.

Am I close?

jberenyi

Wrong everyone. I bought and aluminum sleeve for my Ouzo Pro fork that did not need a star fangled washer. It looked just like the Alpha Q insert with the built in thread portion for your top cap. The guy that makes them lives in Cape Cod, MA.

I FOUND HIM!!

https://www.cornercycle.com/custom_ca...ork_insert.htm

Metzinger

So the sleeve is actually a glued-in compression plug?
And he lived in Cape Cod?

roadpig2001

I purchased one of those for my ouzo pro about three weeks ago . It is available from www.cornercycle.com It fits reynolds carbon steer tubes and some others, you may want to call them for details. I weighed it at 40 grams with epoxy applied ,which is not bad considering the compression plug scales in at 30 grams. It is about 6 inches in length and has threads so you can screw your top cap bolt right into it , no plug or star nut required. One thing I did notice is that it muted the road buzz slightly but I got used to it quickly. Carbon steerers make me a little nervous but this gives me confidence with only a 10 gram penalty. Best of all no freaking plug slip now I can torque the headset to specs. BTW the shop is in Falmouth Mass.

roadpig2001

Oops didnt catch that you posted the web address , just wanted to post my review.

Mark Kelly 

I made one of those out of balsa, carbon fibre and aluminium with a brass thread insert (I don't trust threads in aluminium). Weighed 16 g with glue and has proven uncrushable so far.

The trick is to arrange the balsa so stress is taken along the grain - end grain balsa is commonly used when high compressive strength is needed in CF composites in boatbuliding.

No phots available because it's inside my steerer.

Flatballer

I'm confused. Why don't you just not overtighten your stem bolts? This sounds like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

DaveSSS 

I made my own glue-in plug for about $1. All it takes is an M5 or M6 thread insert from Ace and some epoxy putty. The plug only needs to be about 2cm long, not even close to the full 4cm length of the typical steering tube clamp. Complete with bolt and top cap, mined weighed 17 grams compared to 45 for the FSA compression plug it replaced. The plug alone weighs about 8 grams. Here's a pic of the plug showing the bottom side.

roadpig2001

In my case I installed it because the compression plug ,even when torqued to specs, would slip when setting the headset preload. It is basically the same thing Alpha does with their forks but Alpha inserts will not fit other steerers. The fact that it goes down into the steerer by 5 to 6 inches adds strength to the steerer itself with only a 10 gram weight increase doesnt hurt either .