Bulged/ovaled steerer tube?

[Frank Castle]

Greetings-

Ive spent lots of time lurking here and finally picked up my first vintage cruiser (Columbia tank in pretty good shape).

Pics to come when its back together. For now, I have it part taken down and realized when trying to remove the crown race from the steerer that it wouldnt slide up off the tube freely. it slides fine up until the area the quill wedge wouldve been and then gets stuck. The tube seems to be ever so slightly out of round. The threading above that area is otherwise fine, round etc. I only test rode it briefly before I took it apart so I cant say if it worked ok otherwise. Whatever deformation there is is not really visible to the naked eye and the metal does not seem cracked or anything. Should I be concerned? Tanks for any help.

 

[B607]

If it's only "slightly out of round", I'd take a file to it if you are wanting to remove the race. If not, I would not be too concerned about it. Gary

 

[Frank Castle]

Heres where I potentially get laughed off the site...

So i tried to remove the crown race again today seeing if i can just finesse it off. No dice and it looked to be too much to file off the fork. So I grabbed my adjustable wrench with hashmarks and the bulged or ovaled section is about 1/32" over the normal 1" diameter. Again, just the section where the quill wedge wouldve sat for all those years. I cant imagine this is abnormal but the race thing threw me. Should I disregard entirely, or maybe just shim the tube a bit?

 

[Sphinx]

Frank,
You can only get laughed off the site by telling us you have an original Schwinn Grape Krate for sale. :wink:

Heres where I potentially get laughed off the site...

So i tried to remove the crown race again today seeing if i can just finesse it off. No dice and it looked to be too much to file off the fork. So I grabbed my adjustable wrench with hashmarks and the bulged or ovaled section is about 1/32" over the normal 1" diameter. Again, just the section where the quill wedge wouldve sat for all those years. I cant imagine this is abnormal but the race thing threw me. Should I disregard entirely, or maybe just shim the tube a bit?

 

[B607]

As long as your neck tightens up and feels solid, I would not worry about it. Why are you trying to remove the race? Is it damaged? Gary

 

[Frank Castle]

No the race looks fine. I assumed that it would slip right off, when it didn't I wanted to make sure I wasnt glossing over something that may be an issue. I searched around, and see all kinds of stuff about bending forks and steerer tubes back straight, but nothing about what I would assume is a much more common issue given the nature of the design. Thanks much for your feedback. If I have issues when it goes back together Ill update.