All forked up - Part 2

Once I had the right tool, cutting the steerer tube to length was no problem!

Enter the Park Tool SG-7 Oversized Adjustable Saw Guide. I simply clamped the steerer tube in place, aligned my hacksaw blade to my scribe mark and hacked away. One note: if you already have the star-fangled nut installed in your steerer tube, make sure you have it inserted far enough so you don't accidentally saw through it!

Here's the saw guide and fork clamped securely in place on my portable work bench. I also use this work bench as a platform for my wheel truing stand. I believe I picked my work bench up for around $30 at Home Depot, relatively inexpensive and money well spent!

A close up end-view of the steerer tube clamped in the guide, after cutting

Next on my to-do list was crown race installation. I want to show you the special tools I used for that particular operation:

Yup, mallet and flat-bladed screwdriver. I've heard folks using pieces of iron pipe, PVC tubing, etc. but I saw a YouTube demonstration of a crown race installation using this method.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0FaQy07t80

I carefully tapped around the circumference of the crown race using the screwdriver as a punch, pushing down one side, then the other until the race was fully seated. No problems!

All that was left was reassembly. I used my digital calipers to measure the depth of my star-fangled nut installation (15mm), threaded the steerer tube bolt in and tapped it with my mallet until I reached the proper depth. Then install the lower bearing, fork, upper bearing assembly, headset spacers, stem, bolt and headset cap and tighten the headset bolt until the bearing are properly preloaded. Position the handlebars, tighten the stem bolts, and finished!

-Dwight