mushman

Hello-

Had a friend's carbon fork snap on him over the weekend. Bad accident, but he's ok. Uncertain why it failed, but it scared the heck out of me. Thus...

I'd like to swap out my Carbon fork (came with the bike) to a metal (alum or CroMo).

Can anyone guide me how to pick a fork in terms of size and such?

I know I need a fork for 700c wheel, but I don't know anything about headet sizes, lengths, etc...

Any advice?

merlinextraligh

You do realize that aluminum and steel forks also break?

Menel

Looking over the headlines...

A man driving a Honda killed 5 bikers over the weekend, we need to ban all Hondas from the road.

3 guys went into a Gamestop store recently and shot/killed some people, we should shutdown all Gamestop stores, those are dangerous places.

Some man used text messages to arrange sex with an underaged girl, should ban texting and throw anyone who sends messages in text form to jail.

Makes about as much sense as your post.

merlinextraligh

But if you must, you want a fork with the same mm of rake, and fork length so as to not to change the handling.

The steere tube needs to be the same diameter as your current steerer tube, likely 1 1/8" if its a recently purchased threadless fork.

You cut the steerer tube to length, so the length of the steerer tube is likely not to be an issue.


Only other issue is the reach to the brakes. Your carbon fiber fork likely was designed for use with short reach calipers, so you want to make sure the new fork has the same brake reach, which it likely will.

datlas 

I am no expert but won't he need new headset races or whatever you call them??

mushman

Hello- I'm really sorry... I truly didn't mean to start a carbon vs. metal thread here!!! I promise.

All I really wanted to know is how to pick a new fork. I'm not saying I'm correct for doing it and maybe I'm over paranoid, but this is a personal choice for right or wrong.

Thanks merlinextraligh- I think I'll just pull the old one out and measure it. I didn't think about the rake, this is also helpful.

Please don't comment on carbon vs. metal... that was not the purpose of this thread... I really promise!! They're both great materials... let's just leave it at that.

Thanks!

merlinextraligh

you can reuse the old crown race, but you really should use a special tool to remove it, without risking damaging the race or the fork.

grolby

You can't believe in something foolish and not expect to be called on it.

Back when the only forks available were made of metal, if a fork broke it got replaced with another metal fork.

Make sure you match all of the relevant measurements of the old fork: steerer diameter, crown race diameter (but this will be the same on all modern forks), brake reach and rake (also called offset). Should be relatively straightforward.

But it's still a foolish waste of time and money.