Experiences with installing a Tapered fork on a “Standard” head-tube

[Neran]

Greetings All,

 

Just like to share my experience of installing a tapered (1.125 inch to 1.5inch) suspension fork on a standard (1.125inch) “zero-stack” head-tube.

 

Being rather new to MTbiking I purchased a tapered fork from CRC without realising my bike (Giant trance X1:2010) has a standard head-tube.

 

After receiving the new gear I eagerly visited two “reputable” bike shops in Durban to do the install. The first shop said it can’t work and they seemed pleased that I had messed up by not purchasing from a “real” bike shop as they put it.

 

The second shop was at least polite but they told me it couldn’t work and said I should return it or try to sell it. Posts on this forum also seemed to confirm this. I was about to return it to CRC, at a substantial cost, but decided to do some re-search on the net.

 

I came across the Cane-Creek XX44 traditional Headset (Bottom half), that they claimed allowed one to install a tapered fork on a Standard “zero-Stack” head-tube. Not wanting to trust my “technical” know-how on head-sets, I approached a third bike shop in Pinetown. They look at the stuff I got from the internet and made some calls to their suppliers. They confirmed it would work however they needed a couple of weeks to source the XX44.

 

Luckily a relative was coming over from the States so I asked them to purchase the XX44 from Cane-creek. The tapered fork is now installed on my bike. The XX44 adds a few mm to the head-tube height but nothing really noticeable. The added benefits of a lighter, true-axle, 120mm, (and cheaper fork) far out-weights any down-side in my opinion. Also, most bike manufactures seem to be going with tapered head-tube designs on their latest bikes so maybe the tapered fork will more technology resilient.

 

Hope you find this post useful

 

Regards

 

Neran

 

 

 

 

[Neran]

Pic of the Cane Creek XX44 bottom head-set

[javadude]

Now thats really cool. Well done on finding a solution to your problem.

[Johan Bornman]

One learns something new every day.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[ichnusa]

best post on the tech section in weeks...

 

but the question is whether you still get the benefit of the tapered steering tube? surely the stiffness comes from the larger headtube with larger welding area (or gusset) on the downtube?

Edited November 24, 2010 by ichnusa

[gongmech]

One learns something new every day.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

 

Someoone taught Johan something???

[Capricorn]

gongmech: u get + rep

[Johan Bornman]

best post on the tech section in weeks...

 

but the question is whether you still get the benefit of the tapered steering tube? surely the stiffness comes from the larger headtube with larger welding area (or gusset) on the downtube?

 

 

Yes, the benefit is there. The stiffness problem is at the bottom end of the steerer. The only advantage to a larger head tube is to make it easier for the manufacturer to connect a fat downtube to a fat headtube. However, the fact that he now has to tape the downtube a bit with smaller headtubes, is neither here nor there from a strength point of view.

[AndreZA]

Is this thing properly installed? I don't like the gap between the cup and the head tube.

[TiBones]

Had kind the same problem but in reverse. Got a new frame with a tapered head tube but still needed to use my old Fox fork. Cane Creek do a headset with an adaptor to resize the borttom cup.