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I need some help. I can't seem to find an answer to my particular problem.

Recently, I was riding my bike on a sidewalk since it was getting dark, and I went through a patch of weeds. It seemed fairly safe to do since I could see through them. I was trying to avoid braking and turning. There was a piece of rebar sticking out of the ground about 12-16 inches. I hit it straight on, flipped over, I may have fractured ribs or bruised them very badly. Anyhow that's how my issue started.

I have a fat tire mountain bike 26 inch tires. At the time of the wreck my handlebars turned so I loosened them to straighten them from the stem. After a few weeks of not riding, I rode my bike again and noticed when I hit the brakes my tire turned. I came home, loosened the stem and tightened the top cap, and then tightened the stem. I tested it and had the same problem. I removed the Fork and reassembled. Everything was tight. Then I noticed that the steering tube was actually spinning inside the fork when I held the front wheel straight and turned the handlebars.

Is it broken and I need a new fork? I tried reassembling multiple times, the bearings are good. I'm at a loss for ideas aside from taking it to the shop. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

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  • Does your bike have a threadded or a threadless steerer? The wording suggests threadless, but fatbikes tend to be threadded. Which is it?
    – Criggie ♦
    Oct 8, 2018 at 1:28
  • If you're trying to figure out what's moving, a permanent marker pen like a sharpie is handy. Draw a straight line on the outside of the bike over any parts that are suspected of moving. Then make it move by braking, and see which lines have become unaligned.
    – Criggie ♦
    Oct 8, 2018 at 1:30
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    It's threadless. I can feel it turn at the bottom of the tube, between the fork and the wheel. I definitely know the steering tube is moving. Thanks for the reply
    – Danimal505
    Oct 27, 2018 at 22:32

1 Answer 1

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There are some MTB forks that have replaceable steerers that are attached via binder bolts. Here's a Marzocchi and an RST one, respectively:

marzocchiRST

If your fork is like this you may be able to get it fixed by just tightening the bolts. You should probably take them out and re-loctite them first if so. However, look through the crown area carefully for any other damage that might have occurred from the crash, such as cracking or deformation, either of which could produce the steerer spinning as a symptom (and it would seem kind of likely there's something like this going on, given the timing).

If your fork doesn't have a steerer attachment like this, as most don't, it's more or less a goner. If it was bonded or retaining-compounded in to begin with, you maybe could fix it by re-bonding it, but I'm not saying this is necessarily a good idea.

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