# Replacing Headtube



## Aquaholic (Jan 13, 2004)

Thinking outside of the box on something here...

I've got an older 29" wheeled frame, steel... that's fillet brazed. *1-1/8 steerer tube.*

I've been toying with the idea of upgrading the fork to something current, possibly 27.5 Plus, or the like.

However, fork options with an old school, *1 -1/8 *straight steerer tube, have pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur.

Which leads me to exploring the possibility of replacing the steerer tube with one that would accomodate a contemporary, tapered steerer tube

Bad, hairbrained idea, or ?


----------



## gregclimbs (Sep 21, 2006)

If you know a fox dealer, almost all of the various forks can be ordered in straight 1 1/8 steerer. They are just not common/aren't online.


----------



## Aquaholic (Jan 13, 2004)

gregclimbs said:


> If you know a fox dealer, almost all of the various forks can be ordered in straight 1 1/8 steerer. They are just not common/aren't online.


No kidding??? I was told that "ain't gonna happen".


----------



## gregclimbs (Sep 21, 2006)

It's been about a year since I stepped out of owning a shop, but there were skus for 1 1/8 forks from fox not too long ago. But you would have to be a fox dealer, buying direct from them not some distributor.

It might have changed, but one of the last projects before I closed the doors was a world troller with a fox 1 1/8 fork...

Maybe call fox direct and ask or find a dealer who can look at the current parts list and see...


----------



## Cornfield (Apr 15, 2012)

I know for sure they are still making 26" forks with 1-1/8, but not sure about 27.5 or 29.


----------



## life behind bars (May 24, 2014)

Aquaholic said:


> Thinking outside of the box on something here...
> 
> I've got an older 29" wheeled frame, steel... that's fillet brazed. *1-1/8 steerer tube.*
> 
> ...


44 mm head tube gives some wiggle room for adjustment, angle changes etc. Maybe Walt will chime in.


----------



## Walt (Jan 23, 2004)

It can be done. It would be a lot easier if it was TIG welded, though. You are removing an extra 5mm all around the head tube that's there now, which for a TIG bike means you remove all the weld. With a fillet bike, you probably would have a bunch of leftover brass that would need to be cleaned up.

I don't handle fixing fillet brazed stuff but if it were a TIG bike I'd charge about $300 to do the replacement. You may want to call a few fillet brazing guys and see what they say?

-Walt


----------



## marco529 (Jul 11, 2011)

x-fusion, manitou, and white brothers (MRP now, I guess) still make forks for 1 1/8 steerers. Probably easier to go that way. The MRP loop is well reviewed.


----------



## onlyontwo (Nov 21, 2006)

I am in the same boat. I wanted to subscribe to this. 

Custom Black Cat with an 1 1/8" headtube.


----------



## Walt (Jan 23, 2004)

If it's TIG welded, call me up. I can easily do it for you.

-Walt


----------



## onlyontwo (Nov 21, 2006)

Walt said:


> If it's TIG welded, call me up. I can easily do it for you.
> 
> -Walt


Hey Walt,

It is actually brazed. It is also bi-laminate on both the top and down tubes.

Cheers,
-A


----------



## Walt (Jan 23, 2004)

onlyontwo said:


> Hey Walt,
> 
> It is actually brazed. It is also bi-laminate on both the top and down tubes.
> 
> ...


Would be cheaper to rebuild from scratch, in that case. Sorry. 

Bilam is neato, but it's not easy to repair/modify. All that blingyness comes at a cost.

-Walt


----------



## m-gineering (Feb 5, 2012)

Walt said:


> Would be cheaper to rebuild from scratch, in that case. Sorry.
> 
> Bilam is neato, but it's not easy to repair/modify. All that blingyness comes at a cost.
> 
> -Walt


? You can't weld over a bilam (or any brazed joint) , so if you're a welder you're out of luck. If you're more comfortable with a brazing torch, i don't see what the problem is, unless the cut-outs in the bilams are very close to the headtube.


----------



## Walt (Jan 23, 2004)

Generally you do not just cut through a fillet joint and then re-braze it. You have to remove all the brass and start over - which would mean removing/replacing the bilam part too.

Regardless, I won't do it. Maybe someone out there will, you never know. 

-Walt


----------



## life behind bars (May 24, 2014)

And you're never sure what you may find when you dissect it either.


----------



## Walt (Jan 23, 2004)

Yeah, I do tons of brazing. But I don't just cut up and rebraze existing joints, that's a horrible idea. If you wanted to do a fillet brazed tube replacement (of any tube) you would want to completely (or at least near-completely) remove the existing brass, clean everything really carefully, and then flux up and re-braze. That means it's a LOT of work and hence a lot (if done professionally) of money. Adding the bi-lam part in will make it even more work, since (at least in my paranoid case) I'd want to remove the faux-lug portion as well before rebrazing. Bi-lam can mean different things (from full custom lugs to basically decorative plates with no structural purpose), of course, so there might be cases where it wouldn't be an issue. 

-Walt


----------



## m-gineering (Feb 5, 2012)

Walt said:


> Generally you do not just cut through a fillet joint and then re-braze it. You have to remove all the brass and start over - which would mean removing/replacing the bilam part too.


unless the fillets are very big, most of it will be gone when you've mitered the tubes to fit the os headtube. Repurposing some small remains of brass is fine with me

No point in replacing the bilam with extra heatcycles if you don't have to, but beadblasting the shorelines before brazing to faciltate correcting the fill is a smart move


----------



## Walt (Jan 23, 2004)

Sounds like you just volunteered!



Seriously, though, leaving the old brass is bad (and makes it really, really hard to make a decent new joint due to the massive heat-sink effect). If you want to do it on your own bikes, more power to you. I'd never, ever do that on a repair/replace job. 

-Walt


----------



## Cornfield (Apr 15, 2012)

It's just a head tube...


----------

