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Bikebuster articles |
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About the ahead system |
By Per Bausager
The term Ahead system is used to describe the type of stem which is attached directly to the forks steerer, as opposed to the ?old school? type which was attached down into the steerer. The ahead system requires the new special type of headset, called the aheadset.
There is hardly any doubt that the ahead system is here to stay and it do offers significant advantages , such as lower weight and greater stiffness, but there are also some back sides one should be aware of.
One of these are, as opposed to the old school type where one could adjust the height up and down without steps as much as one liked, this cannot be done with the ahead system. At least not downwards, since the forks steerer has to be cut in order to achieve the wished handle bar height. If you accidentally cut of to much, and later wishes to raise the handle bar, you have to dig in to your pockets and buy a new fork.
Another backside is that you cannot adjust the handle bar height variably, but are limited to adjust with spacers, which most often are available in 2, 5 or 10mm heights.
In order to ensure that the preferred handlebar height can be achieved, it is common for the manufactures to deliver the bikes with a big load of spacers on the steerer. Just continuing riding the bike without reducing the handlebar height will result in a riding position which has very little to do with the position that should be attained when riding a road bike and it is not a pretty sight when the handlebar is flying around in level with the saddle.
So pay attention to the fact that when buying a complete road bike, it is almost always necessary to lower the handlebar and thus cutting the fork. It is not a difficult operation, but it requires that you have a metal saw and that you cut the steerer of the fork a few mm under the stems top so it will not interfeer with the top cap that keeps the expander in position.
To avoid cutting of too much, you should start with taking one or more of the spacers from below the stem and instead put them on top of the stem, so that you lower the handlebars without cutting the fork. When you have testes the setup on a few rides and found the right riding position, you can, as mentioned above, take of the spacers, expanders and stem and cut of the needed piece of the forks steerer. Then you put the expander back on, attach spacers and stem and everything is tightened. |
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