Track fork on a road frame?
 

I'm in the process of my second conversion of a road frame to a fixed...

I'm converting a late 70s Trek 710 (reynolds 531, campy drops...)

The fork is completely useless from an accident.

I'd like to put a chrome, lugged fork on it. I'm looking at the Soma Chrome Lugged Track 700c fork (available at universalcycles.com).

Is there any reason why a "track" fork wouldn't work on my frame? I guess i'm wondering about clearance issues. The fork is 1" threaded, 700c. It should be fine, right? Just tighter clearance?

Thanks

A "Track" Fork won't be drilled for brakes.

for some reason, this "track" fork IS drilled for a brake (so it appears anyway).

check it out here

http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...9&category=633

Go for it.

i think that fork has 38mm of rake so it won't be too far off from a road fork....maybe....depending on your head tube angle...it may...work ok.

For the record, that's a threadless fork, so you'll need a new headset and stem or to have it threaded.

What was the rake on your old fork?

if the fork was rendered useless from an accident (presuming it was attached to said frame at the time), you should thoroughly inspect the frame, especially the top tube and downtube near the headtube lug/weld joints. any sort of rippling or cracked paint will indicate the frame may be compromised.

Do This.

i was wondering about that. so you'd need a 1" threadless headset and a 1" threadless stem, yes? (unless you wanna use a shim with a 1 1/8".)

You can't shim a 1 1/8" since presumably the headtube of the trek is 1"

EDIT: Oh, you probably ment a shim for the stem. Duh, sorry.

your right, the fork is threadless, glad someone caught that.

right now i have a campy record threaded headset (missing the top nut, but otherwise fine). I suppose i could switch to a threadless headset, but is my headtube not going to allow that? hmmm (or thread the new fork? threading into chrome sounds like a bad idea)

Not being able to measure the rake myself (because i'm not at home right now), and looking at some old trek catalogs online, it appears that the rake is 55mm. That seems like a lot of rake and i'd prefer less...

I've checked out the rest of the frame myself, and i've had it inspected at my LBS.. the rest of the frame is true and solid.

Anyone have any suggestions on finding a good chrome fork for this type of bike? I'm not totally against getting a carbon fork, but i'd prefer some chrome and I'm having a hard time finding one...

thanks for all the helps so far

You would have to get a 1" threadless headset. Campy makes one, if you want to keep the pedigree. You could also run a 1 1/8" STEM with your 1" fork and headset, with a shim.

The old trek brochures say a rake of 55, and a head tube angle between 71 and 73 degrees depending on size. Switching to a low rake fork is going to make the steering more sluggish and unresponsive (not twitchier, which is a common misconception). Usually such changes don't matter much to the rider, but that is a really big jump in trail and I think you'd notice.

This is a full-chrome threaded fork with 43mm rake, maybe it will work better for you.

thanks. I did some calculations for the trail length. the original trail would have been, by my calculations, a short 4.7cm. With a fork with 38mm of rake, the trail would be 6 cm. With a fork with 43mm of rake, the trail would be 5.7 cm.

I've heard that anywhere between 5cm and 7cm is typical of a road bike. My understanding is that more trail equals more stability at higher speeds. Less trail equals sharper cornering and less stability at high speeds.

Curious is anyone has more to add to my understanding of trail... So i guess either a 38mm or 43mm rake would work, but 43mm seems like more of what i'm looking for.