Originally Posted by
nickw
Soma sells this fork which has a relatively high offset @ 65mm:
Champs Élysées Low Trail Touring Fork | SOMA Fabrications
It states "It can also be used to convert some frames depending on headtube angles to have a front load bias ".
Anybody have any idea on what a proper HT angle would be? Thinking of trying it on my Double Cross @ 72 deg. I notice the Rando frame they sell is @ 73 degrees, so would imagine the DC would come close to that 73 deg number after the conversion.
I've emailed Soma but haven't gotten a response.
Thanks
Trail = (R*cosH – F)/sinH
Where:
H is the head angle
F is fork offset
R is wheel radius
T is trail
If we are talking about 700c touring tires, here are a couple of representative examples:
Conti Sport Contact 700x37c 350mm radius
Vittoria Randonneur Hyper 700x38c 350mm radius
For a 73 degree head with the 65 mm offset with 350mm tire radius, equals a trail figure of 39mm which is a nice low trail figure. A 72 degree head yields 45.4mm which is about where I build my bikes. Works well with a heavy front end load, preferably balanced with a similar rear load.