Originally Posted by
nlerner
That style of English slack geometry was made for carrying stuff on the rear. For front carrying, you need low trail (30-50mm). Using
JimG's trail calculator, I'm guessing the head tube is something like 70 degrees, fork rake is about 50mm, 27" tires, and I get a trail value of 75mm! That's a high-trail frame. Put the load on the rear.
Neal
I would be quite surprised if the OP's bike is steeper than 68 degrees. Fork rake looks to be at least two inches, so figure about 50-60mm, likely less than 70mm of trail - which was pretty common back then.
Despite what is said on the bikeman post about wheel flop being eliminated by using a steepish headtube - a good deal of bicycles built for carrying loads on the front use rather slack frames.
The distribution of weight is more important than wheel flop in terms of effecting handling, using a long fork rake or a slack headtube both help keep the wheel further forward - and thus less weight overhangs the front wheel.