Google was mostly no help and so was the search function.. could only find short bmx stems and stuff...
basically I cut my steerer's tube a little too short (learned my lesson.. measure twice cut once)... theres about 7mm of space from the top of the steerer to the top of my stem.. and the shop pressed in the star nut a little farther than i would have liked... and my headset came with a pretty short bolt.. would it be better to just get a longer bolt so I can use it like this or should I opt to find a stem with a shorter stack height?

(and what kind of road stems have a shorter stack height.. i can't really find many... needs to be around 30-35mm stack height... current one is 40.. and 90-100mm length.. 26mm clamp if anyone has experience with finding these)

7mm of gap between the top of the stem and the top of the steertube sounds like too much.

As a general rule of thumb, the top of the steertube should not fall *below* the top stem clamp bolt on an aluminum/steel steerer. Another general rule of thumb is that, for carbon steerers, you should have at least a 3-5mm headset spacer ABOVE the stem to ensure you are clamping and not crushing the top of the steertube.

Taking "a longer top-cap bolt" approach will probably break both of the rules listed above.

Recommend going to your LBS and trying different stems with lower stack height.

You state you need a 30ish mm stack height stem. I have never seen one that short. You may need a new fork.

I'm sure you'll be fine with just a longer bolt.

It really depends on the type of steerer. If its carbon, doing what you suggest, is asking for a deformed or crushed top part of the steerer or slippage. If its steel,.... and you have a double bolt clamp on the stem, you are more likely to be OK.

he will be fine with a longer bolt.

Or you could put another star nut in there, just not as deep as the old one.

with the longer bolt and having the cap tightened down, the stem can still move if i put some force on it.. I guess I'm gonna need a stem with less stack height..

Ask your lbs to put you in a new star nut, problem solved.

that still wont really solve the issue.. right now the stem isnt clamping enough of the steerer so it'll still be loose.. theres a lot of controversy over which fsa stems are 35mm because a lot of them are 40mm even though theyre listed at 35mm..

What size is your steerer?
You might as well buy a new fork, some forks are cheaper than a stem.

https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...4&category=704

The FSA SLK black is a 35mm fork clamp stack height. I have and OS 150 I can measure for you.

Post this in Bicycle Mechanics.

that'd be great if you could post the measurement along with a picture.. i searched up os150 and there are a lot of different ones...

Vixtor I'd buy a new fork but dang it.. the white on my frame is kind of a metallic white so its hard to match.. and sadly I care about aesthetics...
I'm pretty the 5mm shorter stem will put me under that 5mm limit...

And I'll try bicycle mechanics as well.

You know the cap isn't what secures the stem, right? The cap/starnut system is only there so the headset can be adjusted properly, they aren't meant to bear any load. The bolts on the stem are what clamp it all together.

which is why right now I am trying to get a stem with a shorter stack height so the stem can clamp on to more of the steerer's tube

Maybe you could get a Headset with shorter stack hight like the Crank Bros. direct set?


https://www.crankbrothers.com/directsets_cobaltc.php