Quiring Cycles

As many of you know, tapered steerer forks are showing up more and more on high end road and mountain bike frames.  It is a fork with a headset system that uses a 1.5 inch lower bearing and a 1 1/8" upper bearing.  

 

It is my belief that the tapered steerer fork is something that the industry is moving to and will be more common especially in the high end market.  This is driven by the move of carbon fiber composite manufacturers to build all-carbon forks that have stronger steerer tubes that can pass new European safety standard tests.

 

In order to accommodate the industry shift and the many inquiries I have received about the taper steerer, I have worked to offer an option for customers.  If desired, for all new frame orders going into 2011,  I can weld in a headtube that will work for a tapered steerer (I am still working on pricing for this upgrade). 

 

Never the less, I will still offer frame builds with 1 1/8" headtubes.  Therefore, all the people who are not concerned with tapered steerer forks can still use the tried and trusted 1 1/8 inch size that has been common on frames for 15 years and, I believe, for much more time to come.

 

In the picture above is an example of a Cane Creek headset which will work with taper steerers.  It is a traditional lower cup and an inset bearing cup for the upper.  I will be able to assist customers in sourcing taper steerer headsets when ordering a Quiring frame.   The nice thing about this design is that with a different base plate, a standard 1 1/8 inch steer fork  (e.g. a custom Quiring steel fork  http://www.quiringcycles.net/igallery/igallery.asp?d=\forks\  ) could still be installed on the frame.   Also it is my understanding that Chris King will offer a headset like this.   

 

The other two pictures are of differant headtube types.  One shows two different length headtubes machined from titanium for tapered steerers.  The second shows the same length headtubes, but what is illustrated is the difference in diameter between a standard 1 1/8 inch steerer verses a new (slightly larger) titanium tapered steerer headtube.   Because I did some machining to the tapered steerer headtube, I was able to make it the same weight as the standard 1 1/8 inch headtube.

 

Please stay tuned to view some pictures of frames welded up with this new tapered steerer headtube.

 

In closing, I am happy to share these exciting developments and I hope that offering an option for taper steerers will help custom built Quiring frames and customers advance with the industry as everyone moves into the future.