Can we play a math game. I am going to try to figure out how a shorter fork will affect the geometry of the bike. First off, I believe the Cdale fork is 410mm in length from fork crown to center of dropouts, most aftermarket forks are 360 - 370mm or so. the difference in the head tube angle should be the following:
arcsin ((old length - new length)/(wheel base))
using the extremes we should have a range.
arcsin((410-360)/171.7)=0.026822
arcsin((410-370)/171.7)=0.025522
I was suprised by how small these numbers are, but then remembered that tandems have a long wheelbase and that would tend to reduce the impact of a change in fork length.
So my question is, even if I get a smaller fork and increase the head tube angle by .03° if the trail is the same does the handling become severly impacted by the shorter/lower front end?