Hopefully this hasn't been mentioned before and isn't the obvious. I'm interested in swapping out my
stem for a quill stem but am realizing after taking my bike apart that the fork steer tube is way too
long for a quill. From what I've read in the little research I've done so far is I can either cut it and get it
threaded, or replace the fork with a new fork with shorter steer? Please correct me if I'm wrong here
I obviously don't know much about bikes.

If I go with the latter, does anybody know the exact measurements of what kind of fork I need, and
could someone direct me to a site with inexpensive compatible threaded forks. I think I need something
along the lines of 1 1/8" x 100mm. I'm probably missing something really important here. Fill me in!

sell it, get a bike with a threaded steerer.

1 1/8" quill stems suck. 1 1/8" threaded headsets are either chris king or suck. it would be better to probably buy up a kilo frame and do a threaded headset. I got my fork cut and threaded (well it already was threaded, but too long) for like 20 bucks at my lbs

Leave it as is.

If you like quill stems, get another frame with a traditional 1" head tube for starters.

Keep your stem.
Real track riders use threadless-type stems anyways, even the ones on steel bikes

If you don't know much about bikes, I suggest leaving the bike as-is. If you are hellbent on converting to a threaded setup, go to your LBS and they should be able to point you in the right direction. You are going to need a new headset and fork unless a LBS can thread the stock Hour fork.

Measure twice, cut once!

Why oh why? When threaded stems first came out, all anyone ever asked was how to covert their quills to threadless.

That's the first thing I did on my Schwinn Cutter... removed the awful riser quill stem, dropped in a threadless adapter and a new 40mm stem.

Eh, quill stems aren't that bad. I don't like how they'll slip within the steerer every now and again when really mashing or skidding, but they're very nice aesthetically.

It's also a huge PIA not to have a removable faceplate like most threadless stems; it makes you have to buy an individual stem for each set of bars, unless of course you like re-taping for every swap.

real track racers also shave off all the hair on their bodies, which is totally relevant to this conversation....

is it? is it really?

it is for me

Sorry to revive an old thread. I got a schwinn cutter too and I want to get a threadless converter too. But I'm wondering what is the steerer tube size on the schwinn cutter. Can someone help?

It's 1"

I know this thread is old/dead but fwiw, I can pick up a decent quill stem for a couple bucks or free from my lbs' takeoff parts so it's actually not a big deal to get a few stems. I like how fast you can switch bars with a threaded setup when you have multiple stems. Loosen one bolt, slide out the stem+bars, slide in new stem, tighten one bolt. Very useful for those of us who like to switch between stuff like track drops/road drops/bull horns frequently