Well, chaps, here are the images of the text on these ex-shop-display forks.
I have managed to capture all-but-one of the pieces of text. There is another long piece about two-thirds of the way-up the steerer which reads “Which ever way you look at it, this fork is a …” then, unfortunately, the text is missing and the lacquer damaged (presumably when the bearing race was fitted).
Here is some of the blurb posted by the Ebay seller about these:
“I bought these many years ago from a bike shop that was closing down. RRP then was £150. These were the promotional ones that the shop had on display. Because of this the forks feature little quotes referring to the specs, such as "average weight 715gms","custom drawn and tapered IMI blades", "bonded joint technology for lightness and strength" to name just a few. The base of the steerer tube had to be filed down to accept the bearing race, this was due to the lacquer that these had, (which was done by the shop).”
The forks, crown and steerer are all lacquered and there are some blemishes under the lacquer finish on the blade and steerer. The steerer is 1 1/8 and approximately 190mm long.
I got these forks with the intention of fitting them to my MT5 build… but now I’m not so sure. The steerer is a little too long for the MT5 frame and, being Titanium I don’t know if my local (quality) bike shop would be able to reduce it or not. The other question I have (being a bit of a simpleton, no-doubt) is regarding what ‘type’ of steerer it is. Am I right in thinking that because there is no thread it has to have the Ahead-style headset and stem fitting, or could a thread be cut? I have a nice NOS black Deore threaded headset and Syncros quill stem that I’d planned to use but may have to revise the build if they won’t fit.
The last image is taken looking into the top of the steerer and shows a piece of metal of some sorts with a threaded hole in the centre. Again (showing my complete ignorance) can someone tell me what this is? Is it necessary to retain this for the fitting of the stem or headset, if I need to reduce the steerer size?
Apologies for so-many questions, and thanks in-anticipation, for your feedback and comments.