Possible carbon fork steerer issue?

Equipment
1

As I was doing some maintenance (cleaning etc.) on my Santa Cruz Stigmata 3 gravel bike today, I removed the expander/compression plug (it’s a 70mm long one) from the fork steerer and noticed that the inside of the carbon steerer has some scoring marks, which worry me. My fingernail catches a bit on the edges of that marked area. Could this be some kind of delamination of the carbon? And could that lead to critical failure of the steerer (which is a clear safety hazard)?

The outer surface of the steerer is smooth, without any visible sign of damage or even scratches at all. But that scoring mark on the inner side really worries me.

Steerer(3)
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Steerer(2)
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Steerer(1)
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2

Hard to say if it was like that from the factory or a result of the compression plug. Working in a bike shop I have seen lots of imperfect finish on carbon, especially on the insides of surfaces. We don’t remove expanding plugs on the regular/unless they’re is an issue because they often are a can of worms so it could be normal or it could be damage. Being that the inside is covered by the expansion plug and the outside is covered by the stem it could have been there from the start. That being said you do sound concerned about it so I would take it to your local bike shop and have them take a peek at it. Santa Cruz has lifetime warranty on frame and forks if you are the original owner so they should be able to sort you out. Forks are cheaper than dental work.

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3

Thanks. It looks like that’s some kind of light grey coating on the inside of the steerer (further down, much below the plug, I can see bits of it peeling off). I don’t remember these irregularities from new (I installed the plug at the time), but I can’t say for sure whether they were there or not.

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4

If you can feel a layer peeling or irregularity, id shoot those pics over to SC and get their take on it. The compression plug should sort it out…until it doesnt. May be totally normal irregularity on the inside, may be the beginning of failure. Unfortunately, without having it checked, you may find out the hard way.

2 Likes
5

Thanks, I’m sending the pics to SC

6

Def see what SC says, but to me it doesn’t look like anything that could have happened in use after manufacture. It looks like imperfections left over the molding process. It was slightly depressed in that area and remained after they sized and cleaned up the bore of the steerer.

2 Likes
7

Thanks for the upbeat opinion, I hope you’re right.