Low Trail 700C Forks
Almost every 700C bicycle designed to accommodate large tires has front end geometry designed for skinny, high-pressure tires. Forks with little offset yield high geometric trail, making the front end of the bicycle floppy with large tires and unsuitable for a front rack. These forks are designed to replace the stock forks on such bicycles so that they’ll handle better with 28mm + tires. They have 58mm of rake, giving a trail measurement of about 40mm with a 73 degree head tube angle. This front end geometry is extremely versatile. The constructeurs used 40mm of trail on road bicycle with wider tires (around 30mm) and no front load or a light handlebar bag, as well as porteur bicycles with slightly wider tire (usually wider than 38mm) These forks have uncut, extra long (40 cm) 1 1/8″ steerer tubes. Double eyelets at the dropouts for fender and front rack attachment, mid-fork braze-ons for lowrider racks, a threaded eyelet on the bottom side of the fork crown for clean, secure fender attachment, as well as braze ons at the top of the fork crown for another rack attachment point. In other words, loaded. Powdercoated black.
The fork pictured with Gran Bois Cypres tire. There is 31mm of space between the top of the tire and the bottom of the fork crown. Shipping forks is costly $12-15 usually, so I’ll be selling these for $83 shipping included. A small shipment will come in next Wednesday or Thursday. E-mail or call me if you’d like to reserve one. If there are any left over when I receive them, I’ll put them in the webstore.
Anthony,
Since it wasn’t mentioned, I’m assuming you don’t have any 1″ steerers. I’d like to buy one of these conversion forks for my Kogswell Model P. If you run across one that’ll work for me, please let me know.
Anthony,
I second what Chris said. If this had a 1 inch steerer I’d be all over it.
The tire clearance does seem a little on the excessive side, no?
No 1″ forks right now. I’d love to have some, but they aren’t available.
The fork is made to clear 40ish mm tires with fenders, the clearance with the other tires is a trade-off for the versatility.
Anthony,
I sense a groundswell here — I too would jump on a 1″ fork.
What is the axle to crown measure on the 1 1/8″ fork?
Need a larger 1″ for my old Trek 520. So yes another vote for 1″ (Sorry!)
I’m new to the the ideas of how geometry affects handling & stability, but wouldn’t you want high trail on a heavily-loaded bike for an easier riding experience? I’d think on a long ride, I’d like to have a less nimble bike that would let me ride “no hands” from time to time.
Firstly, I think these look excellent, and I’m trying to resist the urge to get one for my cross-check, which has relentless wheel-flop with front loads and has worse no-hands performance than any bike I’ve ever ridden or owned (but I love it just the same).
But just to satisfy my constant curiosity:
Who is making these, and where? What kind of tubing?
Have you thought about right-hand wire guides for dynamo lighting?
This fork seems to solve lots of little details for people that have a bike that isn’t worth a custom fork, and wire guides could really bring it to the next level.
Anthony,
I’could need a 1″ for my 1987 ktm classico
would it fit for 47-622 s i.e. 28×1,75??
(distance between the fork blades of the original fork = 58 mm)
how much would it be including shipping to austria/europe?
please let me know once the 1″ edition is available
Anthony, if these are the forks from the 700C Kogswell P/R, these have an axle-to-crown measurement of ~400mm, making them too long for most road frames. They will fit quite well on most cyclocross frames, however.
For a frame with a 72-degree head angle and a 35mm tire, these forks will yield about 53mm trail and 15mm of flop. The same tire with a 72.5 degree head angle and this fork will give 50mm trail and 14mm flop. And a 73 degree head angle results in 46mm trail with 13mm flop.
Jim,
The axle to crown is large. All the forks are gone, so it is a moot point. I would be interested in making something like this in the future, but you’ve hit on the biggest problem–if the axle to crown measurements of the fork they are replacing is different then you change the head and seat tube angle with the fork swap. This might not be a terrible thing if those two angles are at least 73 degrees. Ideally you’d have two 700C conversion forks–one to replace high trail cross forks and the other to replace high trail forks on bikes built for long reach dual pivots.
One of the best uses I found for these forks was coupled with a Double Cross frame. The frame geometry was preserved and the trail made the bike more suitable for road use with 32mm tires.