I got no response in Framebuilding to this, so I have to assume it was the wrong place for the question. let me try it out here.

I was talking Colnagos with a fellow the other day and he described the Precisa fork as "fluted". I forgot to ask him at the time what that term ("fluted") meant in this context. Can anyone here enlighten me?

Thanks

Peter

Colnago's Precisa fork is a chromed, steel, straight bladed, 1" fork.
I've not heard the word "fluted" used to describe a fork, but I'm not a Colnago afficionado.

I think the Precisa was Colnago's straight bladed fork. It was, I believe, the first straight bladed fork available and the rake was provided by the shape of the crown instead of the curve of the blade. Some were fluted along the inside -especially those on Columbus Gilco frames. Columbus Gilco was the crimped or fluted tubing that Colnago (and others) used.

"fluted" maybe be non-standard terminology.
in the end I got back in touch with the fellow I had been speaking with (I was interviewing the owner of La Carrera bike shop in Toronto about the $50,000 Colnago Futura 2000 road frame they had up for sale. Apparently it sold for more than asking. Crazy.)

anyway, he explained that what he meant by "fluted" (he was describing how these forks were apparently designed by Ferrari for Colnago and came from their own special vibration dampening F1 car suspension design) and it's vibration was that it was shaped like a thin champagne flute - with a thin stem at the drop outs and then going straight up and thickening at the top.

anyway, that seems to be his story and I am sticking with it.

Peter

"Fluted" forks goes back in the day when "drillium" was the way to save weight. People would drill holes in their forks to save weight, making each fork blade resemble (and even sound like, at appropriate speeds and wind angles) a flute.

Unfortunately, the whole experiment with fluted forks came to a screeching halt after several catastrophic failures, and we now also now the whole endeavor was counterproductive due to the poor aerodynamics.

I wonder if any of the drilled components ever emitted sound at certain speeds. It would seem they could...and it could be awesome.

Fluting is a kind of vertical scalloping. On furniture it's done for aesthetic reasons but it would also add stiffness and strength to a tubular member.