Jim’s Tech Talk
By Jim Langley
My pal Tony, a longtime bike mechanic at the REI down the road from me in Marina, California gets a shout out this week for tipping me off to an exciting product that wasn’t on my radar. I’m sharing it here because I know a lot of you readers still enjoy road bikes you purchased way before the standards changed to “oversize-everything.”
In the case of headsets, road bikes used to have 1-inch threaded steerers (the “steerer” is what the tube is called that goes inside the head tube and headset (the “head tube” is the vertical frame tube at the front of the bike, and the “headset” is the cup and bearing mechanism in the frame that lets you turn the handlebars to steer).
These days that standard has changed to 1 ⅛-inch and instead of there being threads at the top of the steerer tube, the tube is smooth, unthreaded. Because of these two changes (oversize and unthreaded), many modern components will not fit on bikes with the former standard.
This is a shame because many modern parts, especially stems and handlebars, have changed too. For stems, there are all kinds of options to ensure the reach and height needed is achievable. And for bars, some of the new shapes and flares may significantly enhance comfort and even control.
There are simple devices to convert from 1 to 1 ⅛ inch such as Profile Design’s Threadless Converter ($23.50). These take the place of the existing stem and provide a short 1 ⅛ extended stub tube for installing 1 ⅛ inch stems.
Innicycle’s innovation
The game-changing gizmo that Tony showed me is Innicycle’s Threadless Conversion Headset. I believe it’s been available for at least five years but this is the first I’ve heard of it.
Cost is $125 and it’s available in Just Black and Super Silver https://innicycle.com/ . They even make models for French threaded headsets, BMX and Schwinn headsets.
The advantage of Innicycle’s Conversion Headset is that it protrudes 3.5 inches (9cm) above the headset. This means you can place the stem where you want it and when you trim the top, you end up with a clean finished look.
Also, the Conversion Headset is actually a full sealed bearing headset. Once installed your bike now appears to have a modern fork installed in it and will accept modern 1 ⅛ stems and bars (photo).
Here’s a video showing the installation and explaining all the components included. It’s recommended to use professional headset installation tools as shown in the video. A bicycle shop could do the job in about a half hour in my estimation though installation of a new bar, stem, levers, plus taping the bars would not be included in that time.
While I haven’t had an opportunity to convert a bike with this kit to test its functionality, the idea is brilliant and it appears to be designed and made well. If you’ve already installed one on your bike, please share how it’s been working for you.
Jim Langley is RBR’s Technical Editor. A pro mechanic & cycling writer for more than 40 years, he’s the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop in the RBR eBookstore. Tune in to Jim’s popular YouTube channel for wheel building & bike repair how-to’s. Jim’s also known for his cycling streak that ended in February 2022 with a total of 10,269 consecutive daily rides (28 years, 1 month and 11 days of never missing a ride). Click to read Jim’s full bio.
Nice idea but if I wanted a new bike with new gizmos I’d buy one.
I like my old bikes as they were back in the day.
Pete
I had a “quill stem adapter” on my bike 20+ years ago. With that, you simply remove the old (quill) stem, put the adapter in, then clamp the threadless stem onto it. No need to have a professional do some complicated — and costly? — job!
That’s exactly why I mentioned those adapters in my article Paulie 😊
I will admit that it is a great engineering design. Also, a comprehensive video and interesting review..
However, for the $100 difference between two solutions. we now have “the appearance” of a 1 1/8″ modern fork/steerer tube. Also, with the $25 version, one still has the ability to adjust the height so the stem is where one wants it.
And, that assumes we are not riding a vintage bike because we want to ride a vintage bike.
Thanks for your perspective Walt, appreciate it. I explained in the article that the Innicycle converter protrudes 3.5 inches (9cm) above the headset. This means you can place the stem where you want it and when you trim the top, you end up with a clean finished look. With the $25 converter from Profile, you can’t raise the stem that much, because of its wedge design inside the steerer. if it’s raised too high, you may break the converter. The Innicycle solves that issue and gives your more height adjustment, which is one of the reasons they designed it.
Thanks,
Jim
Wow! Wow again! These people just don’t get it. I watched the entire video. A very good video show casing a nice man that seems to know what he is doing. I think that this product (unless I am missing something) should win the gold medal for “solution to a problem that does not exist”. Just use a quill stem adapter instead for $25. I see no advantage to hyped item. In fact, preloading/adjusting the headset bearings by turning something with your hand will almost always yield a loose headset. They should have put a 32mm hex shape on the item (next to the upper cup) to precisely adjust the bearings. Its a Derosa for gods sake – why would you want to get rid of a Campy headset? I suspect that the rest of the bike is also Campy.
I am shaking my head. Please let me know if I am missing something here.
Thanks for the comment Paul. What I think you are missing is 1) the headset adjustment is secured by a) screwing the top cone down until the headset is adjusted perfectly; and b) by tightening the converter inside the steerer. And 2) the Innicycle converter lets you raise the stem higher than you can with the more basic converter such as the $25 Profile one that I mentioned in the article. One final thought is that, just like people who retro mod vintage cars to make them more reliable, some riders enjoy updating their classic bikes to modern components for similar reasons i.e. reliability, parts availability and possible performance gains too.
Thanks again,
Jim