I am a little tempted to do as FBinNY says, at one shop that takes in and fixes up a lot of used bikes, the mechanic looked at it (but before I'd sanded all the paint off) pried the fork blades around in his hands and declared "I'd ride it". He did say that was his unofficial opinion. Put some clear nail polish on it and check it now and then. He said it was steel so would fail catastrophically, there'd be warning.

The frame shop said nope - I'm sure besides the cracking liability was in mind. Quote "when in doubt, throw it out". I doubt I'll find an expert, at work in his shop anyways, to give me a different opinion.

I do like the frame and I've already purchased some stuff for the rebuild, so I'm kinda stymied. Having a new fork custom built is out of my budget right now. I found a Soma fork that could work - the classic curve - the axle-to-crown is a little tall 389 to my 380 but that isnt too bad. But with shipping its prob $200 and then I'd have to convert to threadless for another $60 or so. At steel threaded fork w cantis and an axle to crown of 380mm is unfortunately a bit of a rare bird.

I meant "not fail catastrophically". I guess more cracking and bending would happen first, still I could see failure causing a sudden and unexpected ejection from my bike

^Yep, that's a remote possibility. I'd say if you were under a certain weight it would be highly unlikely. I sure wouldn't ride it if I were over 250lbs!!

Pic 3 and in pic 2 to a lesser extent: Looks to me like the radial cracks might be connected together via a crack that goes around the steerer through the brazing. Hard to tell, but based on these pic and what the paint looked liked before you cleaned it off, it is what I would have expected.

So Looigi, if that's true what do you think about the integrity of this fork? Are some of you guys saying that these cracks aren't in the typical places you'd expect if the fork was stressed and in danger of failing? Like the cracks were there since the fork was made? I have no idea how long I've been riding it around with these cracks as I only just discovered them but considering the corrosion I suspect it's been a long time.

maybe you can use a dremel cutter , like a dentists bit, clean up the metal in the crack. stop cut to its end ,
in the process, then fill the cavity with more brass..

might just be a less than perfect casting of the crown in the 1st place..
they do have to build them quickly to sell them at a reasonable price.
it is a Bike frame factory after all ..

Fietsbob I took my dremel with a grinder bit to the cracks. I didn't go very deep at all, how thick to you think the crown is in this location? It's a pretty slender crown all around, is it probably solid metal between the steerer tube and where the fork blades are inserted? In photo 1 you can see the upper crack does go through the brazing and a little into the steerer I guess. I ground the crack in the upper part of photo 2 the deepest (but probably less than 1mm) you can see it doesn't appear to penetrate the brazing. It does look there is some separation between the brazing and the steerer tube on this side and maybe the other between the two radial cracks. I could ride it with a bolt through the fork crown and put some clear paint over it and monitor if cracks reappear or continue to develop I guess.

Dropping By R&E will have a live in-person inspection possible.

It looks better than I thought it would be after the grinding. As the bike shop mech. stated "I'd ride it"...

Fietsbob I did go by R&E (I actually own an older Rodriguez too) they took a quick look at it, didn't even sand off the paint, and said nope. I'm sure liability was on their mind as stated by anixi and others, and I wouldn't blame them. Of course they could build me a new fork, but I'm not quite prepared to spend the money for that. I didn't get a direct quote but I'm thinking it would be in the $400 range. It's doesn't match one of the usual forks they small batch produce for their own frame models, they'd have to "custom" make it. A little much for my bike budget now and you should see the frame that matches this fork, I'm doing a lot of touch up paint work. There's no serious damage, I had R&E look it the frame too, but this bike is beat-up, it's been rode hard and put away wet.

How thick the fork crown casting is , would need me to see one not yet part of a fork .

guess this is a hamster wheel thread , something to do to stay busy..

yep I keep taking advice and asking questions, doing a bit more sanding and grinding, taking more pics, taking it to a bike shop, this could go on for awhile!

I was hoping to get the bike ready for this weekend, so I'll have to decide weather I'm skipping that or slap this fork back on there.

Well here's the ending to this story. I wrecked in my race Sunday and the fork failed. It was a bad wreck, I crashed into another rider twisting my handlebars around, breaking some cable housing and sending me to the ER to get my knee looked at - it appears to be just a bad bruise thankfully.

Some bystanders tried to help me get back in the race, but when one twisted my bars back around he noticed my fork sticking about 15 degrees out to one side. Race over. By the shock was wearing off and my bleeding legs were starting to complain. Being steel the fork bent but did not totally break. I guess it took most of the blow because I was able to true the wheel and will be able to use that again. Looking at the pics you can see how thin the fork crown material is. I don't think there was adequate brazing applied to the joint with the steerer tube and a crack developed. The wreck applied enough force to finish it off.

Seeing as this is a 1 inch threaded, replacing the fork is not really practical. The rest of the bike is pretty beat up anyways, so I'm now in the market for a new 'cross bike / frameset. Oh well.

CX Racing, the whole bike is a consumable . now you get to go shopping .. It's good for the economy.

Here I was reading through this thread feeling all bad about your broken bike. A couple years ago my oldest son received an awesome Allez to race on. His mom and I had to really scrimp to buy it for him. Less than 3 months into the season he gets crashed in a crit and his chainstay broke. So you might say I know how it feels to lose a bike due to a crash. His crash replacement frame cost more than a custom fork for your bike by the way. Then as I'm reading through this thread I read where #Murry Missle offered you sage professional advice coming from his background in failure analysis which you resoundingly rejected. Then you even admit the fork is "toast". you consulted an expert who told you to replace it and you did not. You were given advice to put a bolt through the brake mounting hole and yet none is in place in your final pic.

Then I get to the end and see, wait a minute when was this posted....last week. You were seemingly still debating not using it come Sunday before 1 PM and yet you choose to not just race it but take chances and race aggressively! WTF dude! Was it the crashing into me that caused the fork to get to where it is now or did that happen and cause you to crash into me. I seriously question your decision making skills. You endangered my bike, health and life by aggressively racing on a fork that an expert that had inspected it in person told you to replace. Honestly I hope you don't race as I think you are a danger to others. Not only that but the time stamps on your posts make it very clear you did nothing to repair the damage to the fork prior to slapping it back on the frame and rushing to the race. For the rest of the forum reading this our race started at 1:40 PM and Niloc was still thinking about it at 12:18 PM.

There was nothing in the OP's "end of story" post which said whether a fork failure caused the crash or the crash caused a failure. It should be noted that 100% "perfect" forks also fail in certain crashes, so the jury is still out as to whether th OP did anything stupid or reckless or not.

If he crashed because he crashed (as happens in CX) and the crash finished off a fork who's time was due. In a way that's better than having a brand new replacement get destroyed on it's maiden voyage.

I'm always a bit surprised when I see folks racing CX with new expensive equipment. BITD CX was about finishing off equipment that wasn't good enough to race on anymore, but still too good to chuck. CX was death with dignity for worn bike stuff.

I had a close look and I don't think there is anything wrong with that fork. Not enough smoothing was done to the rough forged crown, and they left a ridge. Sharp edges remain, the thick paint cracks at corners, it allows some rust.

Edit: Damn! Just saw the pic! Good thing you didn't take my advice! Hah!

I think it was a proper retirement.

FB maybe I'm over-reacting. We will never know if it broke before or during the crash. I get it that parts break. I also get it that you don't race what you are not willing to replace.
[MENTION=333310]Wilfred Laurier[/MENTION] did you inspect it in person or have a close look at the pics he posted? If in person did you do anything to assess the depth of the cracks?

The only good part of the whole occurrence is we both walked away. I'm sure he wished it would not have happened, I sure wish it would not have.

It does not look like any toast that I've ever seen.