If a seller shows NOS Tange chrome forks for about $50, saying they are in perfect, unused condition, and if the seller responds to my email inquiry guaranteeing that they are cromo and not hi-ten steel, and if the seller can give me the steerer tube length but won't give me the axle-to-crown measurement or offset/rake, should I roll the dice and buy them? If I measure them myself and I am not happy with the offset or rake or axle-to-crown, I should be able to easily sell them and recoup most of my money.

Somebody once told me that all Tange aftermarket forks were hi-ten and not cromo. Is that a myth? Think the seller is telling the truth when he says these are stamped cromo?

Dropouts on these forks look like crappy stamped, flat dropouts. Did Tange make their own dropouts for their aftermarket forks? Are they trustworth? I like that they have eyelets for both fenders and a rack. That is a plus with these flat, ugly dropouts.

Why am I rolling the dice on new forks? I have a 1976 Schwinn Super Le Tour 12.2 Panasonic-made cromo frame that has a hi-ten fork. I can live with the fact that the fork is hi-ten, but Schwinn forced Panasonic to use their thicker-then-normal steerer tube specification, and thus it is impossible to readily find stems. I currently have a Technomic that a friend turned down on a lathe, but I am getting paranoid about the integrity of this turned-down stem.

So who can tell me if aftermarket Tange forks came in cromo, and also are the flat, stamped Tange dropouts trustworthy? Also, why do so many fork sellers list them as city bike fixie forks, when the geometry does not necessarily look like a track/fixie fork? Is it because that is a hot parts selling category so they just put that heading on to appeal to all the hipsters?

Lots of questions in one post. Thanks for your patience with me, my friends.

Absolutely.

I have Tange forks that were claimed by a reputable dealer to be chromoly... I don't recall if they are stamped or not. I see some Tange forks at Cambria Bikes that are listed as CrMo... and I have never heard that Tange only made Hiten after market forks.

If all else looks good, I think it is worth moving forward.

tange certainly made cro mo forks
and hi ten forks
and i would bet forks with hi ten steerer and cro mo

many forks have the material stamped into the steerer

as for stems
21.1mm threaded to threadless adapters are available

Yea , Steel tube stem raisers are made in 21.1~.833", 22.2~7/8" and 25.4~1'' each is stepped down .

the outside diameter on the bottom is the inside Diameter On the Top..

OP; Not sure why you are fixated on Tange branded... A quick search on ebay or amazon will yield a very long list of replacement chromo forks. Many have good pix, a fairly complete set of dimensions, and selling companies with phone numbers or at least email addresses to pose questions. Many are in the $30-40 range. I have used a lot of these for general replacements and almost without exception they are good quality forks. Not too hard to find some that look just about like the bent/failed/broken one for an attractive repair...

Generally speaking, I have found that if the dropouts show as poor or crappy or just stamped, then the fork will be also the same. Recommend to not buy those. No need to when good ones are easy to get.

Hope that helps.
/K

If the fork has a cast crown, it's likely to be chrome-moly tubing. From an old catalog: