daredevil

I'm turning an entry level Raleigh hardtail into a part time, bad weather commuter. I'm putting slicks and fenders on it and want to change the fork.

From what I understand, I need a suspension corrected fork. Nashbar has one suspension corrected steel fork. Is their inventory low or are these things a one size fits all kind of deal? Any chance this is the one I need?

roughrider504

Threadless headset? You will have to cut the steerer to whatever length you want or need.

pmseattle

Their fork claims to be suspension corrected, but it is about 1 1/2" longer from dropout to crown than most other rigid suspension corrected forks. It assumes that your suspension fork had 4" - 5" of travel which is probably not the case for your Raleigh. The Surly 1x1 is a more reasonable size, also Salsa, Dimension, and a few others. You can get the 1x1 for about the same price as the Nashbar if you shop around.

top506

Threaded I'd bet, judging from the two Raleigh M20 out in the barn.
Top

Portis

I found just the opposite to be true. I put a Surly 1x1 on my Trek 4300. It dropped the front end over 1". The longer suspension fork would have been better for me.

daredevil

Sorry, I would have replied sooner but the forum was down.

It's a threadless headset and it's a model M60 Raleigh.

I made the same post on the Bicycling forum and came across a couple Kona Project 2 forks that will work well also.

here and there

When I was looking for a rigid fork I emailed nashbar about their fork and they said it was suspension corrected for 80 mm travel forks. I ultimately went with a surly instigator fork, which is suspension corrected for 100 mm travel forks. The lowest price I've seen on the instigator was at aebike.com for $67 (that's where I bought mine).

Portis

The surly 1x1 is supposed to be corrected to 80 mm as well. Still it wasn't tall enough. I would have been better off with a longer A-T-C.

daredevil

Thanks for everybody's input.

My current fork is an 80 mm travel Rock Shox. When I measure it from axel to crown it's only 15 inches. A 410 mm suspension corrected fork is about 16 inches. The 453 mm at Nashbar is like 18 inches. I'm guessing the 410 is what I need? And shouldn't a bigger concern be whether the brakes will fit?

Little Darwin

I replaced the fork on a Raleigh MT-500 with the Nashbar rigid fork, and it was taller then the broken Tange Strut suspension fork I replaced. I also replaced the suspended fork on my Sedona DX with the Tange suspension corrected fork that I bought from my LBS. The Tange is shorter, but worked well.

I like them both!

When I was looking for my alternatives, I found for a variety of forks here as well:

https://webcyclery.com/home.php?cat=319

EDIT: In both cases, the brake bosses were positioned properly for my 26" wheels.

daredevil

Pretty stupid on my part. Of course the brakes won't be a problem if it's for a 26 inch wheel. Duh!!! So would you recommend the 410 then?

Little Darwin

Yeah, I am very pleased with my Tange which is 413 mm so I think (based on my limited experience) that the 410 range would be fine to replace a fork with 80-100 mm of travel.

It sure is nice to not have the pogo stick up front, and an aspect I didn't expect (but like) is the slightly improved responsiveness of handling.

It made as much difference to me as the change to slicks that I did a year or so ago...

Peek the Geek

Check out the information under "Mountain Forks" on this Vicious Cycles web page:
https://www.viciouscycles.com/faq.php3

FWIW, they recommend a 438mm fork for bikes designed for 80mm travel suspension forks.

Wogster

Dumb Question, I will also be looking at this at some point, what about a 75mm travel fork, round down to 63 or round up to 80????

Peek the Geek

Round up to 80. A taller fork will slacken the head angle of the bike, making for a slightly more stable ride. A shorter fork will make the bike twitchier, though you may not notice a difference either way. Plus, nowadays you'll find more options for 80.

Wogster

That's what I figured, besides, 80 is a lot closer to 75 then 63 is, I would expect that 5mm wouldn't make much difference, something like .1 degrees.....

Now back to our regularily scheduled thread

daredevil

Does anybody know if any of these have places to mount fenders? I was gonna get the Tange. I'm assuming none of them do since it doesn't specify. So I either need to give up the idea of turning this thing into a commuter or find some fenders that don't need mounts.

I was also surprised to see 30 bucks for shipping for a $43 fork from Webcyclery.

daredevil

In fairness to Webcyclery I better point out that this is for expedited shipping. Sorry. My mistake. I'm gonna get the Tange from them. They promptly responded to email about the fender eyelets. Both the Tange and the Surly have them.

Little Darwin

One comment...

The eyelets are there, but the mounting hole in the fork crown is too high for my taste. I bought some aluminum bar and built a drop bolt to get my fender down where I wanted it (just below the cable of the V Brakes).

To get an idea on the drop bolt, look at Sheldon's home made drop bolts:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/home-drop.html

Since the fender mount doesn't have to withstand the pressure that brakes exert, I simply did the equivalent of one side of Sheldon's.

It was pretty easy to figure out the sizing of the drop bolt by getting the fender in place and using a piece of folded paper to find the length that got me the proper positioning. Sawing and drilling the aluminum stock was easy too...

I had to buy 3 feet, so if you would like a few inches, let me know in PM and I can send you a hunk as my contribution to your project.

daredevil

Great. Thanks. Another nice jesture in the bike forums. Gotta love it.

HardyWeinberg

Can you move the whole headset race from your old fork to your new one?

here and there

You mean the fork crown race? Yes, it can be done. Just take both forks to the shop and they'll put the old crown race on the new fork.