Anyone know anything about the hierarchy of Tange forks?
I've acquired an NOS fork, stamped "Tange 6D". I found a similar, but even nicer fork stamped "Tange 9K" on ebay.
I'm curious how they compare and what the numbers and letter really mean.

The 6D and 9K are date stamps and don't denote any hierarchy. My 1983 Shogun fork was stamped 3k, and my 1984 Shogun fork was stamped 4c. The letter may denote the month.

Look at the dropouts-- if they are forged, the forks are probably chromoly as opposed to hi-ten. I have an early 80s Tange catalog which shows all the fork and fork crown variations, and pictures of your forks may match up to them, depending on their age.

There really wasn't that many in the lineup, but I've no idea what the codes mean without pulling them from my bikes.

Around 1983-1984 they had a sloped crown Tange Champion 1 and 2 fork that was not lugged. On the Turbo, they chromed the crown.

Around 1985 they came out with a Tange Prestige fork, externally lugged fork crown that had chrome lugs, very pretty.

Both the Champion 1 and the Prestige fork were chromed under the paint, but not polished chrome. I think the fork ends were Suntour.

They followed that with a lugged Mangalloy fork with painted cutouts in the fork lugs.

They followed that with a sloped crown fork that was not lugged, probably the same fork as the earlier Champion.

Then came the unicrown forks, made of various tubing, right through about 1993 or so, maybe a bit later.
This includes a unicrown fork of Prestige tubing.

I think now the only forks they are actively marketing individually are the Prestige, which are lugged chrome.

That's all I know, sort of what I saw, and when.

I love Tange forks. In for pics.

Don't forget about the Tange Fusion fork.

Oooh, is that a Dura Ace stem? Hubba hubba...


[sorry for the derail]

+1 Those are date codes, # = year, letter = month. Great thing about Tange forks. Ishiwata used similar coding.

1986 sounds about right. My fork is chrome. The dropouts are stamped "Tange TR". The steerer tube is internally rifled. I'll post photos as soon as I can. Thanks!

Send me a note with your email, and I can send the catalog these came from.
There are other pages in it with blade tubing and other parts of the forks.

The catalog came from another BF member, one of the best pieces of info I've ever gotten there.

There's also this for anyone interested:



Reference: https://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/tan...chureforktube/

That would be one of the higher end forks. A stamped crown and non-rifled steer tube would be on low to mid-range models.

Cromoly forks are stamped 'CR' or 'CroMo' or something sinilar on the steerer, Hi-tensile steel forks are stamped is similar manner.

I have a model 188

Those switchblades are dope!

Sorry ... I'm just now reading your reply. But I do feel the same.

.

+1, the alpha-numeric code is a year-month code, with the OP's example being from April 1986. A steering column with six, spiral ridges is indicative of CrMo. While there is a hierarchy from hi-tensile to Mangalloy (carbon-manganese) to CrMo (chromium molybdenum) to Prestige (heat treated CrMo) there wan't the same variation as between tubesets. For instance, in the CrMo road forks, Tange #1 through #5 , 900, 1000 and Infinity all used the same 0.9mm wall thickness. While there were round and oval versions, in two different diameters, but this was to fit the sockets of the various crown options, which were designed for different applications (i.e, road, track, touring). The rake would also vary depending on the application, but this was often customer specific. So, when you're talking 1980s Tange road forks, there isn't much of a hierarchy, with the variation being primarily alloy, application and cosmetic style.

eight years later...lol!

beautiful miyata! i put a fork like that on my old miyata built univega GT. had canti bosses brazed on and need to rechrome, though. some apparently good chrome paints are out these days and may try that...given chroming prices

The steel fork on my '85 Cannondale has that sloping crown, Tange fork-ends, and a Tange Levin headset. Plus the lowrider & dual eyelets, for touring. No canti posts though. I wouldn't be surprised at all, if someone said Tange made these forks specifically for Cannondale. 🤔

When I restored the '73 Super Course, it had a black powder coated (I think) fork and I wanted chrome tips like the original. I found an all chrome $39 Rampar NOS Tange fork on Ebay. Both forks have crowns with three points pointing down and the reach and rake look identical. I thought I had a picture of the Rampar and Tange marking on the steerer, but couldn't find it. It rides very well, but is a little tight getting the wheel in and out. No idea of actual mfr. I know it's not a type original to the Super Course, but looks OK to me and rides fine.

Black fork, as found, with three fender eyelets per side

NOS Rampar Tange all chrome fork, after paint, only one eyelet per side.