Cutting the steering post

[Jimmy Welch]

Hi All
I want to drop my bars down to a lower position and so I have a lot of spacers now sitting above the cap which looks odd, so next step is to cut the post down but there is a star fangled nut to contend with , it's a Cannondale Synapse Aluminum 2014 bike and from the videos I have watched I can't see if you push the nut down to a place just below ie 3mm , the new lip or do you push it way down and fit a new nut , but either way how do I get the nut to exactly were it needs to be
Cheers

 

[Lozz360]

You push it down far enough so it can still easily be reached by the stem cap screw. There is a GCN video that explains the process very well.

 

[ColinJ]

I would ride the bike for a month or two with the spacers above the stem before cutting the steerer down, in case you change your mind!

 

[si_c]

Use something like a 1" diameter socket and slowly tap it to just below the line you want to cut, then once you've cut the steerer tap it down into it's final position - keep track of how far below the top of the steerer it is now and get it into roughly the same position.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I would ride the bike for a month or two with the spacers above the stem before cutting the steerer down, in case you change your mind!

I never got round to trimming the steerer on the Verenti I had, When I sold it earlier this year it had still got the spacers above the stem.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I never got round to trimming the steerer on the Verenti I had, When I sold it earlier this year it had still got the spacers above the stem.

And that may even have added a bit to the resale value.

 

[fair weather cyclist]

I'd say anything up to half an inch of spacers above the stem is OK as it's not very awful looking. Anything above half an inch is garbage and needs cut.

 

[lejogger]

Taking one of mine to the LBS tomorrow for them to do this for me.
Not something you want to mess up, so while I'm happy to do the vast majority of maintenance myself, this is one that I'm happy to pay a small fee for!

 

[JoeyB]

Taking one of mine to the LBS tomorrow for them to do this for me.
Not something you want to mess up, so while I'm happy to do the vast majority of maintenance myself, this is one that I'm happy to pay a small fee for!

^This - Happily built a few bikes up from framesets now but some things I just like to hand off to my trusty LBS for piece of mind.

 

[si_c]

^This - Happily built a few bikes up from framesets now but some things I just like to hand off to my trusty LBS for piece of mind.

Done it a couple of times, not too difficult with a metal steerer, especially if you have a vice block for it, but I wouldn't want to do it on a carbon tube. That being said if it was egregious I'd get it done at the same time as getting any facing (BB, disc mounts etc) done on a frameset build.

 

[Venod]

A couple of Jubilee Clips or similar the width of a saw blade apart are a good substitute for the special jig you can buy, I have cut several carbon steerers this way.
I find the starnut offensive, a proper bung as used on carbon steerers is a much better engineered solution.

 

[Jimmy Welch]

Too much ?? I've gone and cut it wasnt too much trouble

 

[vickster]

I would have left space for a couple of spacers above/below the stem myself...too late now

 

[T4tomo]

lets hope you don't want to move it back up 5 or 10mm

 

[Jimmy Welch]

It's still pretty close to 30cm with the spacers gone , it's not exactly slammed feels good and looks a mile better