bigbossman 

I'm overhauling a bike for a friend's son. The CF fork has some bad nicks in it where the carbon weave has been compromised, and I'm recommending replacement. According to the manufacturer's specs, this bike has a fork rake of 50.

Here's the problem - all of the budget forks I've found have rakes of either 43 or 45. I've done some Googling, but am still a bit confused. Will reducing the rake from 50 to 43/45 increase stability, or make the bike livelier/twitchier? Or, is 5mm difference really not worth worrying about?

I don't want to make the bike hard to handle for the youngster.