Possible to have new steerer fitted to forks?

[TreaderSteve]

I see Mercian appear to be able to do it for £95. What's the general consensus on fork construction? All the undersides of forks I can remember seeing look a bit knobbly as if the steerer is TIG'd in, rather than smooth as if they are brazed in and are then un-brazeable and the steerer can be replaced. I know not how steerers are fitted, obviously!

I've been looking for 1" forks for a 90-91 Merlin - I could nab some probably slightly earlier Project 2s from my brother but they're in all honesty maybe a bit spindly as the Merlin's a bit oversize. I may be wrong and I should bite his arm off and nab them?

There are some Orange F7s from one of my old broken Oranges in the shed which are very seksy, I don't mind they're British on an American bike, but the steerer's too short. Do I spend my ££ getting them chopped-about and is it even possible do you think? Anyone had it done? Anywhere that'll do it cheaper?!

 

[bold stelvis]

steerer extensions are generally done by chopping the existing steerer above the butt in the tube and then joining a new steerer length to that with some sort of press fit sleeve inside to help bolster the joint - then it all gets welded and sanded - theres a great video on Paul Brodie's youtube channel that goes through the whole process

most MTB forks are unicrown or tig welded so no chance of somehow 'unbrazing' - from what I have learned online, most builders think that unbrazing a brazed in steerer on a more 'traditional' road bike style fork isn't a good idea anyway as the heat might screw up the whole joint assembly into the legs as well

I doubt any competent job is going to be cost effective vs just finding and buying some forks TBH
nice ones do pop up fairly regularly on ebay and here - you just have to be patient and wait for the right ones (steerer lengths are often the issue in my experience - was in the same boat recently)

 

[kafer-k]

I'd get the Project2 forks, always been a fan of them. There's a YouTube video of Paul Brodie extending a steerer tube worth checking out. What headset are you planning to use? If you go for something with a low stack height it means you can get away with a shorter steerer. What's the actual measurement of your headtube?

 

[TreaderSteve]

Thanks both for the above. It looks like whipping-out the steerer and boshing in another on MTB forks is not such an easy option. F7s are sweeeeeet-as though.

They won't look too bad I suppose - the bro knows their worth - time to barter!