Originally Posted by
physdl
Greg, how does the fork you linked to compare to the Surly ones? I've seen a bunch of recommendations for those. The one you linked to might be heavy, but from what I've found, it's half the weight of the one I have now
My understanding is that I roughly need to match the lengths of the forks, and I measure ~460mm for my fork right now (without sag), while the one you linked to is somewhat shorter. I know the Surly ones are longer than usual - are there any cheaper ones?
It looks,
according to Shimano, that having a 44t big ring your FD will handle a 48t chain. They only list five but you would have to have the model# off of your part (usually on the inside of the cage where you can't see it) to know for sure.
You can plug different numbers into
this gear calculator to get an idea of the changes you would get with different gearing. Put your numbers in first and get an idea of the relationship one gear has to another, then you will have a feel for what changes would do for you.
I don't know anything about the Surly forks except some respectable forum members recommend them, based on that I would use one if I needed it. The lengths listed for threaded forks are the steerer length, not total overall measurement.