Building A Road Bike In Pictures #13 The Expander Plug
Expander plugs, those small components pushed into practically every carbon fork on road and mountain bikes don’t seem to get much attention. At least so it seems once one starts looking at what the market has to offer. There are a few choices by the likes of FSA that many OEMs just stuff into the throat of their forks, and there are a few light-weight aftermarket gizmos that often come with some disclaimer attached listing all the circumstances under which they might detach. Okay, I’m exaggerating a little but choices are far and few. Of those, the general design typically consists of a bunch of segmented pieces sitting around two cones and held together with springs or O-rings. Pretty heavy and not the brightest solution to the problem. Not so Specialized’s expander plug, a fine example of how simple an expander plug really can be - two conical end pieces, a center bolt and a split expandable center tube.
