Bruce27

I own a 1982 Trek 613 and just purchased a 1981 614. Didn't know this until recently but it's been mentioned that the Ishiwata CCL fork crown had some issues with breakage (I have not had any issues with my 1982) so, before I go off increasing my life insurance, I figured I'd get input and have the owners of these bikes weigh-in on their own experience with this fork.

So if you've rode your bike hard and believe it has in excess of 1,000 miles, are you a #1 or #2 ?

1. Own one of these models and the fork has no issues
2. Own one of these models and the fork cracked

Too soon to comment on my 1981 but, #1 for me on my 1982.

Anyone else?

fender1

How is a 30+ year old bike part considered to "failing" when it has done its job for 30+ years?

jeirvine 

I have a 1980 414 with the same crown and no issues. I Voted.

jonwvara

Because forks aren't supposed to break?

fender1

Neither are knees, arms, hips and backs. Yet, as these "parts" get older and their use history comes into play, the can and often times do fail.

elboGreaze

I have not put more than 50 miles on my '81 , during 5 yrs of ownership , but voted anyway . Had it for sale , then pulled it when this issue came up recently . I'm still going to sell it , but will either take it to the frame shop and have it modified , or get a new fork .

Bruce27

I did this poll in the hopes of trying to find out how big an issue it really is.

Pemetic2006

I have an 82 614 and I haven't ridden it much but someone appears to have for 33 years and it's fine.

jonwvara

Yes, things made of meat do seem to deteriorate over time. It's certainly happening to me. Steel, not so much, or so one would hope. All of my bikes are well over thirty years old. Maybe I'm living in a dream world in expecting the forks not to break.

Okay, I don't want to muddy the waters of this thread any more, so will shut up now.

Bruce27

It's all good jonwvara. I'm also of the opinion that steel should not crack under normal riding conditions. Granted, hitting deep pot holes does not add to bike longevity so this poll is not about extreme circumstances. I'm not going to fault a part because it didn't pass the sledge test.
Just looking to get a good consensus via the pole numbers from members who have experience riding with this fork.

smallpox champ

I bought a 1982 311 a couple years back. It has the same CCL crown. The fork broke in short order. I noticed the bike felt off and it pulled to one side. After measuring the dropouts I found out it was the fork. I wouldn't hesitate to ride forks with the same crown, unless you ignore all the warning signs it's unlikely it will fail catastrophically.

My father bought an '81 400 with the same crown, it's served him well, but he doesn't ride it hard.

It's also worth mentioning that commonly available replacement 27" forks have an identical looking fork crown.

Road Fan

@fender1: In the parlance of modern reliability engineering, if it breaks or ceases to function, a failure has occurred. What caused it (such as long-term fatigue due to a systematic design error) or if it is unusual is step 2 of the analysis.

Road Fan

I think if the bike was potholed or jumped hundreds of times and the fork was repeatedly stressed past its elastic limits, degradation and failure are normal. Moral of the story: don't jump your road bike. The break will happen sooner if the engineering contained an error caused by Trek, or if the material in the crown was deficient. Over-stress, design errors, or flawed materials.

jgcycle

My Trek 614 has a 1979 serial number, I bought it off CL and the Ishiwata fork was cracked bad. Both rims had flat spots so I figured it went through a nasty pothole. I can't get the bike to index shift reliably so I wonder if something else is misaligned. I friction shift with a Crane RD. Love this bike! (I voted).

katzenfinch

I no longer own my 1981 614 so I didn’t vote, but when I had it my fork did indeed fail — one of the blades broke off. Fortunately, it happened while the bike was in a workstand being tuned for an upcoming tour. For the short term I replaced it with chrome, non-crowned fork but didn’t like the way it looked. Eventually I bought another Trek frame on eBay and used the fork from it. To their credit, Trek paid for the new fork and also repaired and repainted the whole bike when a crack later appeared in one of the dropouts.

jeirvine 

That's an interesting bit of information. How long ago did Trek do that?

Rodasch

I have an '81 613 with the fork crown in question. I've ridden it 3,000+ miles over the past couple of years, several hundred of those on gravel and other rough surfaces, and often with 5-20 pounds in front panniers. No problems so far. Once in a while I consider replacing the fork, but I haven't researched the options.

VictorKnox

I've been meaning to post some questions about this issue for a while. I have an '81 614 and have read all the threads about these forks. In one of them it was mentioned that not all of these bikes had issues, it was only a subset of them. Is there a way to tell if yours is part of the bad batch? One particular issue I am wondering about is this: My fork, pictured below, has TREK stamped in the crown, but the pictures I've seen of broken forks do not have this. Could this mean mine won't have this issue, or is this irrelevant? Has anyone with a broken fork had the Trek logo stamped in theirs?

I just bought mine this past fall and only got about 600 miles on it before storing it for the winter. No issues so far, and I plan to use it as my main road ride this summer.

bakes1

Nothing is supposed to break and anything can break.
What's your point?

jonwvara

That a properly engineered fork should not break. If it does break, it can be said to have failed.

smallpox champ

As far as I'm aware the stamped crown was used for the '82 Trek 311, and is the same crown.

elboGreaze

So to be clear, your 311 fork that cracked had the Trek logo stamped on the crown ? I'm asking because mine has the stamp , thanks !

Pemetic2006

My 82 614 does not have "TREK" stamped on the fork crown.
Neither does my 79 910.

Lascauxcaveman 

The way I look at this issue is: there are only two* really well known fork designs that have a reputation for breaking without being abused, the cast aluminum Lambert fork from the early 70s and the Trek fork that's the subject of this thread. I think the OP's poll is a good effort to try to quantify how much that reputation is deserved in the case of the Trek. I also think it's silly to say "Well, of course it broke, it's old" since there are so many hundreds of fork designs over the last 120 years which have held up to everything except really bad crashes, other serious abuse and extreme rust.

(*and yes of course there are many dozens/hundreds of truly rotten forks on cheap bikes that would be prone to failure if people actually rode them, but none from companies with the high quality standards that Trek had BITD, none from companies who designed their bikes to be raced, toured or really go a lot of miles.)

katzenfinch

It was in the 1990s. Trek guaranteed their frames for life, as long as you were the original owner. I believe they still do.