Tapered vs straight steerer

[Big JD]

my FS 100mm 29er can take tapered (with external bottom headset) or straight steerer (1 1/8th)- if I go 34mm stanchions and 15mm Ta forks do tapered really make a difference. It needs a long steerer as it has a long head tube. I can get a good deal on a straight steerer fork and wonder if I would really notice straight over tapered?

cheers

 

[pharmaboy]

I rode a straight steerer reba for a while with one of those hope reducer thingies and it didn't seem any different to the other bike with a tapered steerer - I know the manufacturers claim it's x billion percent stiffer, but whenever I push on one side of a wheel the whole wheel moves way more than the crown of the fork- ......

 

[moorey]

Hey big fella. Can only speak from personal experience, but I swap back and forward between similar bikes, both with 150mm revs. One tapered, one straight. I can't feel a difference. I'm sure there is a difference if you are 100kg and pushing hard, but I'm neither.

 

[Ackland]

my 2c is no....
I've just swapped frames on the SS and forks from a Niner Rigid Straight/qr for the RDO tapered/15mm version.

Both are less flexy than my Fox 140mm F34 tapered/15mm and my Reba Straight/15mm.

I think that the build of the fork and frame is the largest contributor.

 

[Big JD]

Hey big fella. Can only speak from personal experience, but I swap back and forward between similar bikes, both with 150mm revs. One tapered, one straight. I can't feel a difference. I'm sure there is a difference if you are 100kg and pushing hard, but I'm neither.

yeah mate thats what I figure too. Mailed the grips to you yesterday too

 

[moorey]

yeah mate thats what I figure too. Mailed the grips to you yesterday too

Like I say, its only personal experience. the figures and stats quoted by fork companied etc tell a different story, and the last time this came up, someone said that theu have bent straight steerers, but not tapered.......but we all know that the plural of anecdote is 'anecdotes', not evidence:thumb:

Cheers for grips, bit fella :kiss:

 

[Dales Cannon]

Had both and no noticeable difference. Transplanted a set of Fox forks with straight steerer into the Yeti when I built it up and used the oversize bottom bearing. Ran fine, no wobbly bits. Had to change out the forks out of another frame that had a straight headtube and picked up some forks with a tapered steerer so bought the correct lower bearing and fitted these tapered steerer forks to the Yeti and moved the straight steerer forks into the other frame. Same same. About the only thing I would say is it looked better with the bigger crown but as far as riding was concerned impossible for me to tell.

 

[BKMad]

I think the main difference will be the weight. Tapered and straight steerers are probably pretty similar in stiffness, its just that the straight one will be thicker and therefore heavier.

 

[agentninety3]

I think the main difference will be the weight.

I think we're talking Chopsticks' level titanium bolt weight difference.

 

[creaky]

I run basically the same fork (F29 Fit 120mm) on two bikes, one tapered and one straight steerer. Both frames are tapered headtubes.

I have never noticed a difference.

 

[John U]

Tapered steerers was a solution to a problem that didn't exist.

Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity. Nothing more to add.

 

[Ackland]

Tapered steerers was a solution to a problem that didn't exist.

Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity. Nothing more to add.

No! The problem was that people were buying new frames but keeping their OLD forks! You can't have that!

Quick... make them redundant!

"Giant Overdrive" Steerers... now there's a real can of worms....

 

[John U]

No! The problem was that people were buying new frames but keeping their OLD forks! You can't have that!

Quick... make them redundant!

"Giant Overdrive" Steerers... now there's a real can of worms....

Or even better, keeping their old frames and adding new forks. Can't have that either.

 

[StanTheMan]

didn't yeti & those boutique style brands have tapered before Giant?

 

[John U]

didn't yeti & those boutique style brands have tapered before Giant?

Might depend on your definition of boutique. I think the boutique brands might have offered tapered headtubes as an option when more and more tapered forks were produced but I don't think they were the drivers of the adoption of this new standard.

 

[Ackland]

didn't yeti & those boutique style brands have tapered before Giant?

Not "Giant Overdrive" - their OWN tapered with a bees d*ck wider diameter at the top, requiring a different stem, upper headset bearing and top cap.....

 

[99_FGT]

IIRC tapered also allowed the manufacturers to run larger bearings which in theory last longer.
Ran mine for a year like that and had no probs, only thing I will say is that compared to the tapered steerer the straight one got a lot more muck in it, so clean it fairly regularly! Might have been a difference in forks too, but after 6 months on the straights the bearings were caked, and looked new when I took the tapered out after 12 months.
Al..

 

[Calvin27]

I pulled away from buying a giant because of the stupid steerer problem. Ok I might never change anything being the rider I am but, heck if something breaks I want to be sure I can replace it without someone ripping me a new one.

I was caught off guard when my Spesh Secteur roadie came with a 1 1/8 and 1 3/8 lower steerer. NOT OTHER FORK FITS THIS HEADSET! It's got some crappy specialized steerer profile that is neither straight nor tapered. Quote from specialized dealer $550 for fork and headset! At that price, if it dies, I will just get a Chinarello carbon frameset!

/endrant.

 

[pharmaboy]

Not "Giant Overdrive" - their OWN tapered with a bees d*ck wider diameter at the top, requiring a different stem, upper headset bearing and top cap.....

No it's 2 bees dicks. You gotta get your terminology right though. "giant Overdrive" means the standard bees dick known as a tapered steerer. Giant overdrive 2 means the extra bees dick on top but the same Ron Jeremy thickness at the bottom.

( technically, a Ron Jeremy is 12 bees dicks)

 

[swaz]

Tapered steerers was a solution to a problem that didn't exist.

Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity. Nothing more to add.

It was a problem engineers discovered and then promptly solved. Giving each other high fives and a day off after solving said problem!