Matching Forks to Frame
 

Can someone run me through the issues I might encounter with matching a fork to a frame? i've found the possibility of obtaining a Columbus frame that comes with no forks. I'm thinking of putting the Durall 979 forks on it that came with a Vitus.

For example — just what sort of tolerance can I stand between varying sizes in the seat tubes — as that will effect standover?

I'm lost as to what you're getting at with seat tubes...but the issues I can image with fitting a Vitus alloy fork to a columbus steel frame would be the trail of this fork (is it dramatically different than the original fork?) and the obvious: steerer length and threading. You can make it work with the HS that will have worked on the Vitus, AFAIK, since the cups should still be sized to press fit in a steel bike's head tube, so even if the Vitus fork is French threads (I don't know that) the only issue left is steerer length and HS stack..as long as you have enough or more length, then spacers might be the only thing needed...and a 22.0mm quill, maybe.

Thanks unworthy: it sounds more complicated than I want to get into — as if building from a frame up is not complicated enough sometimes.

FWIW: I'm having trouble committing to my Vitus project. The forks are simply lacquered aluminum. The rest of the frame is painted, undercoated, and has the original paint on two main tubes — paint not anodize. The stripper — which seems to be the strongest I can get here — lifts the paint, softens the undercoat and leaves the original coating pretty much as is. It must be Imron or some epoxy. I can't send it to Osaka where a lot of frames are professionally done in Japan cuz I'm afraid of the process they use may un-bond the epoxy the frame is assembled with. I could spend a wad of yen getting the frame ready for polishing only to have the whole thing get rickety on me. And, there is only ONE place that I know of that handles Vitus rebonding — across the Pacific — and he may have lost interest by now. Anyway, even if he were still in the business, two-way shipping and the bonding process would be a another huge wad of $CAD.

I was trying to find a way around to another project, but I guess that I'd better bite the bullet and just fight the old finish off the Vitus somehow. A polished, totally aluminum frame would/could/ should be the reward.

BTW — (The frame I found needed no paint at all.) Lenton58/Lorne