Those wooden plugs usually had a hole drilled through them for the front brake. Makes me think they were there more as a safety feature than for any increase in stiffness. As someone else (Jim?) mentioned, a failure in that area would be catastrophic. Remember, metallurgy at the turn of the century was nothing like it is today. I'll bet some mechanic saw the result of a headtube cracking through and decided it would be a good idea to put a hardwood plug in there to hold the steerer together long enough to allow the rider to come to a more controlled stop. I had a front wheel fall out of the forks on a descent when I was just a pup, and I want to say that losing anything in the front end makes for some pretty unwelcome excitement.
Steve Barner, Bolton, Vermont
> Date: Fri, 09 Aug 2002 20:53:24 -0700
\r?\n> From: "ROBERT L. FREITAS" <freitas1@pacbell.net>
\r?\n> To: CLASSICS <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, jimmerz@qwest.net
\r?\n> Subject: [CR]RE:RIFLED STEER TUBE old question answered
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n> JIM MERZ has managed to answer a question that I first had over 30
\r?\n> years ago, my BIANCHI TEAM ISSUE had a wooden PLUG at the bottom of the
\r?\n> steer tube, I always thought it was to keep water out or
\r?\n> something.........turns out it was ITALIAN COMPOSITE circa 1965
\r?\n> BOB FREITAS
\r?\n> MILL VALLEY,CA
\r?\n> heading up the coast tomorrow AM to get some relief from
\r?\n> the heat and dodge a few tourists