Classic & Vintage - long, long fork

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA

View Full Version : long, long fork

jgedwa
10-10-06, 03:31 PM
Rats. I thought I had figured all the angles on the build I am doing. This is a LARGE frame Raleigh that I am making into a fixed gear. I thought I had found someone who could get me the fork for this frame, but today he says his source has dried up. I need a standard (1") threaded fork at least 280mm to make sure the threads catch. That is long. I have several big frames, and none have more than 250mm.

Any advice about where to find such a thing? I would ideally like to have it made for a 27" wheel, but I would not think a 700 would present much of a problem. I would like chrome, but would take any finish or color.

j

cyclotoine
10-10-06, 03:47 PM
I had the same problem, I could only find one as big as 250 and need about 255mm. I ended up selling the frame out of frustration. The guy who bought the frame had someone cut the steartube in the center or close to the bottom and weld in a small diameter pipe as an extention. With stear tubes as long as these it shouldn't pose a problem for getting the stem in, however it is not something I would want on one of my bikes. I still made the right choice in selling it I think.
TimJ
10-10-06, 04:41 PM
Have you looked at new threadless forks in terms of length? You could switch to threadless, possibly. Another option would be a custom fork build, I think you'd be able to find a number of builders who will do just a fork.

TimJ
10-10-06, 04:49 PM
Right here:

http://aebike.com/page.cfm?PageID=30&action=details&sku=FK2483

unicrown and theadless, but it's long enough.

And surly's steamroller fork is apparently long enough too.
jgedwa
10-10-06, 10:07 PM
naive question: can a threadless fork be threaded? Can a well-set up LBS do this? Any caveats to doing it?
TimJ
10-11-06, 09:36 AM
naive question: can a threadless fork be threaded? Can a well-set up LBS do this? Any caveats to doing it?
I do not know. I know any LBS would have a tap device, but putting threads on the outside of something, I dunno.
tolfan
10-11-06, 09:52 AM
I have a tall old schwinn with a chrome fork I will check the lenght for you
jgedwa
10-11-06, 10:26 AM
Cool. But I am starting to find out that anything more than 250mm is pretty much impossible.

So, how did it come to pass that newer bikes have such short headtubes?

j