Originally Posted by
alcjphil
Appearance be darned, I want a good fit along with a bit of fudge room. I would never cut a steer tube to its minimum
I’m OK with cutting a steerer right down because it looks much better, but I won’t do it impulsively. My last fork, I cut it to leave ~20mm above the stem, then spent most of a year experimenting with the stem height, 5mm up or down for maybe a month at a time. Once I had settled on a height, I left it for a few months before I cut it down. It’s where I want it, and it looks good. I’m not going to have an ugly stump sticking up out of my stem just to convenience some hypothetical future owner. If, down the road, I need a couple of centimeters extra height, I have a spare fork with a little extra steerer length in the parts box