Rethreading forks.

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blackbike
Posts: 2492
Joined: 11 Jul 2009, 3:21pm

Rethreading forks.

Post by blackbike »

I have pair of threaded forks on my Bob Jackson audax bike, and the thread has gone and the forks won't stay tightened up.

Bob Jackson do a fork column replacement service, but I thought I'd ask at my local bike shop to see if they could do it. They said they could, but rethreading is another option.

Anyone eve had any forks rethreaded and were they OK?
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531colin
Posts: 17129
Joined: 4 Dec 2009, 6:56pm
Location: North Yorkshire

Re: Rethreading forks.

Post by 531colin »

If you could come across one of these in inch size, it would solve the problem for you easily...http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BIKE-BICYCLE-G-FORCE-YST-DUAL-ALLOY-HEADSET-1-1-8-BLACK-NOS-/300714470420

Threading a 1" steerer cuts into the thickness of the tube, which only starts out at 1/16 th of an inch. Unless the thread is just "dinged" and wants chasing, there is no metal left to cut a thread into.
Bike fitting D.I.Y. .....http://wheel-easy.org.uk/wp-content/upl ... -2017a.pdf
Tracks in the Dales etc...http://www.flickr.com/photos/52358536@N06/collections/
Remember, anything you do (or don't do) to your bike can have safety implications
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Gattonero
Posts: 3730
Joined: 31 Jan 2016, 1:35pm
Location: London

Re: Rethreading forks.

Post by Gattonero »

Like said above, you cannot regenerate a thread when the metal has gone. You can try with a lower stack headset, the Tange Levin are youre friends there, also quite cheap but good quality.

Before doing anything, I would ask myself what happened that made the headset chew up the thread on the forks, you know, things will neve be really sorted if you don't find out what happened.
It may not be just riding with a loose headset, I'd say there's bad installation, overtightening and/or the wrong nuts have been used there, cross-threading is not easy to do on a headset but it can happen.
Another thing to punt into accounts, is one ting that was actually more common on French forks: instead of machining a shallow slot for the "tooth" of the washer in between the upper cup and the locknut, some manufacturers would just cut vertical. This may get the top of the forks a bit squeezed so to have a loose thread. However, I do not remember Bob J doing this to their forks
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since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
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