Originally Posted by
Kontact
It is worthwhile to remember that carbon fiber composites are just reinforced plastic. There is no way you can clamp metal to them and not have some compression marks. But that narrow mark on the back of the steerer is hardly anything compared to how much of a beating a carbon dropout receives:
And every carbon frame with a clamp on front derailleur has a pretty obvious crease by the clamp bolt.
True, but in those examples, I'm pretty sure a dropout isn't actually hollow, and while a seat tube is, I'm going to guess that a failure there is a lot less likely to throw one off the bike, face first - I imagine you'll stomp on the pedals, notice the bottom bracket swaying more, and your front derailleur rub the chain with each pedal stroke. That sounds like a car ride home (or a very gingerly ride, if one isn't too far), whereas a broken steerer sounds like an ambulance ride to the ER. or worse. Given that quite a few cyclists have called out that this doesn't look normal/doesn't look like something they've seen, I'd rather get it checked out.
Definitely want to mitigate the risk of catastrophic failure, even if it means a new fork. It seems that peace of mind is worth a lot to me these days...