Fork Mod

Pictured with thew stem I don’t like.

This Schwinn straight bar knock-off I bought a couple years ago takes a fork with a 1 1/8th inch steer tube. I didn’t have a fork that size and bought one used from my LBS. I did have one stem that would fit and have been using it but I don’t like it. Instead of buying a new stem I decided to see if I could adapt the fork to take a smaller sized stem which I have plenty to choose from.

There was too much of a difference between the diameters of the fork and any stems I had that a shim wouldn’t work so I decided to see if I had a piece of tubing with the correct outside and inside diameter I needed. To my surprise I did. Probably leftover from an old girls Schwinn 3 speed that I hacked up long ago. The tube was a snug fit in the fork and I drove it in with a small sledge hammer till it wouldn’t go any more.

 

Then using an angle grinder with a cut off wheel I cut off the excess flush with the top of the steer tube.

 

I doubt the tube I inserted would ever move but I went ahead and drilled some holes in the steer tube and welded it to the tube inside.

 

New stem, new handlebars and new brakes. I always had a hard time getting the brakes that I’d originally put on properly adjusted so a quick trip to the LBS and now I have new, better working brakes.