When I bought my "highly cusomized" 1966 Paramount tourer, it had a velox
handlebar plug in the bottom of the steerer tube.
Photo:
http://twistcomm.com/
> From: Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: chuckschmidt@earthlink.net
> Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 19:51:49 -0800
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: Re: [CR]Corked steerer tube
>
> charles nighbor wrote:
>>
>> I just obtained an early 80's Davidson Discovery (touring frame) 57cm
>> frame and components all in excellent condition. Upon removing handlebar
>> with stem I looked into steerer tube and it was closed at the bottom
>> with a wine cork. Frame was sold out of the excellent Cupertino Bike
>> Shop, CA. No rust was evident inside steerer tube. Some moisture in
>> grease however was evident. So my question is this a good idea to do. I
>> would be worried about cork absorbing moisture and rusting steerer tube
>> to point of failure. Specialty in a area like Seattle.
>
>
> The consensus back in the day was that it was a bad idea. People used
> to seal the bottom of the steerer with a cork to keep the road grit and
> grime from being thrown up into the lower opening of the steerer tube.
> But rain water enters the steerer at the stem and steerer joint (even
> with the parts greased) and proceeds to fill the steerer tube with water
> because it is sealed at the bottom and it then rusts in a ring at the
> top of the cork.
>
> The Dr. Seuss solution would be of course to make a hole through the
> center of the cork to let the water out and then plug that with and even
> smaller cork with a hole through the center to let the water out and then...
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, CA
>
> .