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Old 07-31-24 | 02:07 PM
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Tapered Forks

I'm looking for a new fork with a tapered steerer tube and I'm seeing references to a "mountain taper" and a "road taper".

Could someone enlighten me to the difference?
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Old 07-31-24 | 02:58 PM
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Do the forks have their steerer diameters listed? If so how do they compare to each other? What dimensions will mate with your bike? Andy
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Old 07-31-24 | 03:03 PM
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Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart
Do the forks have their steerer diameters listed? If so how do they compare to each other? What dimensions will mate with your bike? Andy
I thought about trying to discern the difference by looking at that, but very few of the forks I've been looking at have that level of detail......The interwebs have all kinds of crazy conflicting information!
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Old 07-31-24 | 03:54 PM
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the typical taper on a road fork is longer, at a shallower angle... and some are REALLY short, for the extra-small frames...

MTB tapers are usually right around 63mm... road tapers vary..

mtb tapers are held to about 63mm to increase available room for Suspension Fork Travel within the geometry of the frames.
RockShox started doing this years ago.. it now carries over to all the other suspension fork makers.

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Old 07-31-24 | 05:49 PM
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Originally Posted by maddog34
the typical taper on a road fork is longer, at a shallower angle... and some are REALLY short, for the extra-small frames...

MTB tapers are usually right around 63mm... road tapers vary..

mtb tapers are held to about 63mm to increase available room for Suspension Fork Travel within the geometry of the frames.
RockShox started doing this years ago.. it now carries over to all the other suspension fork makers.
So, with a rigid fork and external cables, it sounds like the taper doesn't matter, correct?
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Old 07-31-24 | 06:20 PM
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Originally Posted by PromptCritical
So, with a rigid fork and external cables, it sounds like the taper doesn't matter, correct?
wrong... the fork's tapered portion must be short enough for use with your frame's headtube... it must end below the installed height of the upper bearing and wedge ring.
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Old 07-31-24 | 07:38 PM
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Originally Posted by maddog34
wrong... the fork's tapered portion must be short enough for use with your frame's headtube... it must end below the installed height of the upper bearing and wedge ring.
So with this I assume that MtB head tubes are shorter than road bike ones. And/or they use Intergrated bearings which further shorten the "working length" of the steerer... Andy (who has obviously lost his finger on the pulse of terms)
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Old 07-31-24 | 10:09 PM
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Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart
So with this I assume that MtB head tubes are shorter than road bike ones. And/or they use Intergrated bearings which further shorten the "working length" of the steerer... Andy (who has obviously lost his finger on the pulse of terms)
I so miss the days of Campy Super and Nuovo Record when all was compatible and all was right in the world (well, almost all).
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Old 07-31-24 | 10:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart
So with this I assume that MtB head tubes are shorter than road bike ones. And/or they use Intergrated bearings which further shorten the "working length" of the steerer... Andy (who has obviously lost his finger on the pulse of terms)
no.... the MTB world adopted a "standard" of 63mm or so... Some tiny road bike frames need a shorter taper to fit.. others can get away with a much longer taper, or one that begins farther up the steerer tube...

remember... the larger the tube's diameter, the stiffer it acts, while also being able to be thinner, to a point.
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Old 08-01-24 | 08:44 AM
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Originally Posted by PromptCritical
I so miss the days of Campy Super and Nuovo Record when all was compatible and all was right in the world (well, almost all).
Yeah, putting more than five sprockets on a freewheel was the beginning of the end, it's all gone downhill from there.
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Old 08-01-24 | 08:46 AM
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Originally Posted by PromptCritical
I so miss the days of Campy Super and Nuovo Record when all was compatible and all was right in the world (well, almost all).
We obviously needed another "standard."
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Old 08-01-24 | 10:10 AM
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Originally Posted by pdlamb
We obviously needed another "standard."
Wait for it. SRAM will have another one (and not publish it publicly) in another week or so.
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Old 08-01-24 | 11:29 AM
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Originally Posted by pdlamb
We obviously needed another "standard."
Brings to mind the famous xkcd cartoon:

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