Earlier this week I wrote in to ask advice on whether to cut a vintage Colnago fork. Survey said yes, overwhelmingly, that apparently forks were made to be cut.
So since I don't have a saw guide or a machine shop, I called around to a few bike stores in town to ask about getting this cut down and the thread extended. And here's where things got strange. Nobody wants to do it.
The basic line I got was that while cuttiing the fork is no problem, the threading is a pain. And one shop went so far as to say they don't, as a rule, do threading of steerers. Reason: because it's "murder on the $70 tool." It was odd, and I said, "so, what, you simply don't use your $70 fork threading tool for fear of ruining it?" And the guy said that the only use it to "clean" dirty threads; cutting the "ruins" the tool.
Now I'm no expert, but it seems odd to me that a fork threading tool would get ruined by doing its job. And it seems odd that this is apparently a job nobody can do. Interestingly, the guy started talking to me about "making the switch" to threadless and how he could show me catalog with great threadless stems.
Anyhow, am I being a ninny on this? Is it simply impossible to thread a fork these days? (I say that with tongue in cheek, because I really can't imagine it is).
Corollary question: assuming that the laws of modern physics do indeed allow for fork cutting and threading, what's the going (post-Newtonian) rate for such a service? Or am I better off buying this famous $70 tool, doing it myself and then chucking the now ruined fork threading tool.
Which reminds me, since when do companies like Park make a disposable line of tools designed to break with only one use?
Ken Bensinger
Brooklyn, NY