In a message dated 6/5/2005 6:16:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time, norris@norrislockley.wanadoo.co.uk writes:
<< As for threading the plain column, that poses more of a problem in my experience. No matter what make of die I have used and whose die-holder , including all those adjustable ones, I have nearly always finished up with quite a tight thread. >>
I could not agree more with Norris and my comments on this is: "Do not take cutting new threads into a fork lightly."
In my 32 plus years of serving the cycling public (!), few things have caused more knashing of the teeth than fork threads* As I indicated, we have had every shop tool except those in a big frame production plant, VAR, Hozan, Campagnolo, Park, Cobra, and Cyclus... And honestly unless you have a lot of time to spend (multiple hours), much skill and a lot of patience, you should think twice about threading new threads on a chromed, or not, steer tube.
* That might be a fun thread; "Nightmares of bicycle mechanics?" (Broken taps in rear dropout adjuster holes... seat posts down inside the seat tube.... stems corroded solidly in steerer tubes....?)
Dale
Dale Brown
Greensboro, NC USA