crystalkc

Something I'd hoped would never happen, happened. I got hit by a car while biking, to go vote of all things. The entire front of my bike (handlebars, brakes, fork, wheel) was damaged beyond repair, but the driver was found 100% at fault so their insurance will be hopefully footing the bill.

Anyways, my issue now is that my local bike store tells me that Surly will not have their Cross Check forks available until Spring, 2015! I can't wait that long. To make things worse, even when they do come in stock, they only come in black - my frame is the beautiful robins egg blue version. I could pay to have it powder coated, but that will more than the cost of the fork itself (and on the short term, I'm paying).

So I've been looking around for decent-looking forks with similar measurements, and I came across the Soma Classic Curve Cyclocross/Trekking fork. It comes in a beautiful chrome, but it's 11mm shorter than the Cross Check fork. Will this potentially negatively impact my ride in any way? Are there any other forks with identical measurements to the Cross Check around?

rpenmanparker 

You are going about this wrong. It is not your job to make this right. The insurance company is responsible for putting you back on a bike at least as good, complete and matching as what you started with. If it is not possible to get a fork the right color, tell the insurance company they will have to get you a new bike that matches both in color and in mechanical specifications. Of course, you can do the picking, but they have to agree up front to make you whole. If it requires you to have an attorney to get what you deserve, so be it, but the insurance company should be made aware that will cost them more, because they will be paying for it. The insurance company can take all the assorted parts from the old one. Do not, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT, settle for less good that what you started with.

bleui

wouldn't a shorter axle-to-crown fork make the headtube/seattube angle steeper?

Bunyanderman

Get them to buy you a new bike, and give them your old broken one. That's only fair, don't let them account for depreciation unless it is older than 3 years. They are going to try and short hand you with it only being a bicycle, tell them they are lucky you didn't have 5 digit bike.