Greetings.

I'm planning on building a 2002 Marin Verona frameset (Columbus Thron, Cro-Mo fork) into an every day bike...25-28mm tires, fenders (biggest tires I can get with fenders anyway), 23mm wide rim-based wheels, like Campy Veloce.

This was the last year evidently that Marin used threaded headsets, the following year was threadless. I have nothing against threaded, don't get me wrong. However, I'm considering a change to threadless on this bike. I'm not looking for carbon or anything as I really want eyelets for the fenders.

The thought of a quill to threadless adapter isn't too palatable. Most of them, IMHO don't do justice aesthetically for a bike, although functionally there's nothing wrong with them. In the end I'm hoping to:

1) Save a little weight withe the threadless setup in the weight of the headset and stem.
2) Have a wider selection of stems and bars to choose from as I'd use a shim to go to 1 1/8.
3) Make changes more easily as I dial the bike in fit-wise.

The frame is going to be stripped and powdercoated so I'm wide open as to what 1" threadless steel fork I get. Could be the cheap Dimension fork, or something else entirely.

So for all the trouble and moderate expense will I save a decent amount of weight? I see loss of the quill stem, heavy binder bolt and nut, etc. and using a lighter stem and bars.

The wrenching part doesn't bother me, on the contrary, that's the fun part.

Surly offers several threadless cr-mo forks as replacement components in both 1" and 1-1/8" steerers and for caliper, canti/V-brakes and disc brakes. . You do want to pretty closely match the crown race to axle dimension of your original fork so you don't change the geometry too much.

as the first response says, try and match the crown-to-tip dimension of your fork. a lot of the surly forks are meant to replace suspension so are extra tall, this would raise your head tube several inches, resulting in excessive steering angle, and give you some of that funky 'chopper' steering effect. worse, if the fork has insufficient 'rake', you could end up with negative trail and a totally unstable bike.

I doubt you'll manage to mess with the geometry that badly just by replacing the fork. OK, maybe if you put a 20" BMX fork on the bike....

I'm intrigued by this one, disc compatible:

https://www.cambriabike.com/Dimension...k-700C-1in.asp

if the frame has a 72 degree steering tube angle, the stock axle height to crown height is 350mm, and you raise that 50mm (2") to 400mm, (breaks out his trig).... (hypotenuese aka fork length is 370... so we add///oh my head hurts... I'd need to calculate the crown to REAR axle distance as thats the 'contsant' here when you raise the fork... I should get a tape measure and just do it ... but I'mm too lazy.

anyways, it doesn't take but a few degrees change in the fork angle to alter the stability of a bicycle. maybe it would end up MORE stable, and be harder to turn, I dunno, that depends on the relation of contact patch to front axle, or 'trail'.

disk brakes are just uneeded weight on a road bike. they are probably a good idea for for cyclocross.

Well, poop on you! I wannit!

Thanks for the replies thus far!

Here's the target:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/271146330630



And here's the geometry, doesn't list rake though:



Heck, I dunno, is it worth it? hahaha!

I'd stick with the threaded fork. Unless you're just silly set on making this project a pain in the butt, you'll have more fun with a Nasbar threaded carbon fork and a set of SKS Race Blade Fenders.

For the fit, I'd suggest working with your LBS to determine your fit, or use a tape measure on your other bike(s).

Good luck.

Yeah, I keep looking at that installed FSA headset and say "Why are you thinking about this?"

I have a pair of Race Blades in the closet....cant stand fitting the danged things

I might have to look more at black adapters, that really might make the most sense.

Thanks.

You know, this doesn't look half bad:



Thomson X2 Road stem 110 mm x 17 degrees.
Point One Racing Nanosecond spacer.
Deda Elementi Spada quill adapter.
1985: Campagnolo C Record headset.

Given I'll be all black it would hide even better. Deda Spada....hmmmm.

EDIT: Hmmm, 1" adapter instead of 1 1/8"

I hate to say it, but to me, the best looking part of that frameset is the fork (I would definitely not swap it out).

I agree with well biked. Frameset looks sweet! Do what you want, but keep the original fork in case you ever sell the bike.

Before you do anything, make sure you can mount your 25-28mm tire in the rear and fender. The Verona was a racing bike and I'm fairly certain you will not be able to use that tire/fender combo in the rear.

My hope is the 25mm tires on 23mm wide rims. The Verona is an odd duck. You look at it and the geo and, yeah, it looks "racing". But, it has front and rear eyelets, a pump peg (odd for a 2001 "racing" bike?), and mid-stay mounts for a rack?! That's one of the reasons I jumped on that listing: while it looks "racy" there's also stuff that says it may be a little more "relaxed". That and the fact that I know if I mount up a wheel and don't get the clearance I want I can CL it locally and not lose anything.

And you know what, if I have to lose fenders that might not be the worse thing in the world. The target tire size is more important. Time will tell...it supposedly arrives Saturday!

You can measure the stock fork rake yourself -- the tricky part is keeping a long straightedge in line with the steerer while you measure the distance from that to the midpoint of the dropout.

That stock fork looks pretty nice to me, but then I like quill stems as well. Anyway, let us know what size tire you can fit.

If that is a typical road (race) geometry and size, you have no chance of adding full fenders and might not get even 700x28c to fit. You should try a 700x28 first and see (front and rear). And if you're thinking that a slightly wider rim will suddenly drop the tire height a significant amount, don't count on it.

But, you could build up some 650B wheels and have plenty of room for everything. I'm currently doing exactly that on a similar vintage Lemond frame and I'm liking it a lot. The new wheels (chris king hubs and grand bois 32 tires) actually built up lighter than my previous wheels (105 hubs and gatorskin 25's).

Regarding fork/headset, I like that one (and, a little pricey, but the chris king threaded is an excellent headset)

There is a way to measure fork rake more accurately. You place the fork horizontally on a flat surface like a table and support he steerer at two points a couple of inches above the table so you can rotate it. V-blocks are ideal but anything steady will do. Rotate the fork so the dropouts are horizontal and pointed straight down and measure the distance from the table top to the center of the dropout slot. Then rotate the fork 180° and measure the distance from the table top to the dropout center again. The rake is 1/2 of the difference between the two measurements.

That is definitely an option. Since I'm building up the wheels anything goes at this point. I could go with 700c 25s on the 23mm rims and be happy I think. 28s would be nice but not required. I just gotta think that a bike with eyelets front and rear and with mid-stay braze-ons has a little more clearance than a "normal" race bike without them. Why obviously intend fenders and a rack and not allow anything bigger than a 23mm tire? We'll see I guess. Hahaha, this is going to be fun

Perfect, thank you...

Would this fork and this fork intrigue you too ?

Actually, they do. The caliper is mounted 180 degrees out of phase with the normal forks. Thanks!

Info about the design: https://www.cotic.co.uk/geek/#ROADHOG_discmount

What rims did you partake of out of curiosity.

Thanks for the links cobba!