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Crown Race Setting Tool Hacks?

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
23,927
14,442
where the trails are
14" of PVC with the correct id.

The last crown race that I set I just assembled everything, and used extra spacers and pulled everything together using the star nut, top cap and screw.
 

jstuhlman

bagpipe wanker
Dec 3, 2009
16,624
12,916
Cackalacka du Nord
if you don’t have a pvc pipe, maybe open a large crescent wrench around the steerer tube and grently tap/work around with a hammer? also heat and liberal amounts of grease.
 

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,504
In hell. Welcome!
if you don’t have a pvc pipe, maybe open a large crescent wrench around the steerer tube and grently tap/work around with a hammer? also heat and liberal amounts of grease.
My advice would be not to fuck with anything steel/iron anywhere near the alloy steerer. The PVC pipe is a good trick. You don't need to cap it / hammer it either - just turn the fork upside down and make gravity and momentum do the work by bouncing it a couple of times.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,852
9,557
AK
4 food drop?

Grease that bitch and use the star-nut/headset to press it on?
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,628
5,443
For Cane Creeks I kept an old bearing and used that and a pipe to drive it down.

Don't run them now as their headsets to suit my bike suck.
 

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
15,827
13,063
Pushing everything together using the star nut sounds like a good way to shorten your bearing life unless you have an old bearing as @HardtailHack suggested.

Crown race tool ftw here.
 

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
23,927
14,442
where the trails are
Pushing everything together using the star nut sounds like a good way to shorten your bearing life unless you have an old bearing as @HardtailHack suggested.

Crown race tool ftw here.
Why so? It's constant pressure, not hammering/impact. I'd think just riding puts more stress on bearings than slowly squeezing them together during assembly.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,562
24,182
media blackout
definitely PVC pipe. make sure the business end is a perpendicular to the length of the pipe otherwise it won't get the race on straight; you'll have to bugger it around some to make sure its flush on the crown
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,628
5,443
Why so? It's constant pressure, not hammering/impact. I'd think just riding puts more stress on bearings than slowly squeezing them together during assembly.
It's a M6 screw, in mild steel that can apply over 700lb of force.
You no doubt can do it but it's pretty cruel, a thrust bearing may be rated for such a force but an ACB wouldn't be.
 

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
23,927
14,442
where the trails are
It's a M6 screw, in mild steel that can apply over 700lb of force.
You no doubt can do it but it's pretty cruel, a thrust bearing may be rated for such a force but an ACB wouldn't be.
Ok maybe it could apply that much force but it doesn't have to. It only has to move the bearing onto the bearing seat and overcome the press-fit tolerance.
 

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
23,927
14,442
where the trails are
I would think the star nut would creep upwards before that kind of force, but I don't know Jack.
Jack knows.
paging Jack .... Jack to the white courtesy phone.

OK :monkey: Engineers ... how much force would it take to overcome the typical press-fit of a bearing race onto a fork?
 

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,504
In hell. Welcome!
I found my latest Works Components headset came with a crown races that had a gap in it. I pressed it on with my fingers. Works like a champ!
CC 10 comes with a plastic split crown race. Looks awful but didn't detect any subpar performance from the race alone (the terrible bearings that came with it - that's a different story).
 

Happymtb.fr

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2016
1,907
1,252
SWE
I have been splitting a few crown race with a hacksaw followed by a meticulous deburring. It has never failed so far