Mercier Kilo TT & a Threaded Fork
 

Maybe one of you can clear this up for me. I'm interested in purchasing a threaded fork for my Kilo TT. As I understand it, I should make sure the new fork's rake is as close as possible to the original fork's rake if I want to avoid any geometry problems. Now my question is "What is rake on the original fork for a 50cm Kilo TT?" BikeIsland claims to be selling a 1" Threadless Kilo TT Fork with a rake of 44mm. Cyclesmercier.com states that the 50cm Kilo frame has a 37.5mm rake. So, what's the deal? Links are below so you can see what I'm talking about.

http://www.cyclesmercier.com/geometry_tt.html

http://bikeisland.com/cgi-bin/BKTK_S...ls&ProdID=1728

When I was first under the impression that the Kilo's rake was 37.5mm, I figured that Soma's Lugged 1" Track Fork (link below) would be compatible since its rake is 38mm. Now I'm not sure what to do. Would it work? Also, would there be any problems I could possibly encounter after installing such a fork?

http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...&category=2779

What are you're reasons for wanting a threaded fork? If it is because you want a quill stem, you should look into this:

http://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...31-8-rise.html

Might be a little less hassle.

Kilo TT forks all seem to differ from one to the next so nailing down an actual "correct" rake will be tough.

I'll just leave this here:

http://www.retro-gression.com/produc...ed-chrome-fork

:innocent:

That looks pretty, when did you start carrying those?

yeah I didn't even know that was on your site. I've been thinking about a new fork and it seems like everything nice I can find is 1.125

They arrived yesterday. At first glance it looks alot like the steel Leader fork but the blades are thinner/more round and the crown is more angular.

Thanks for the replies, guys. Yes, I'm planning on installing a quill stem, so the quill-looking threadless stem isn't really what I'm looking for. And as for the rake measurements varying from Kilo to Kilo, is there a legitimate way I can measure my fork's rake at home with simple tools or can my LBS determine that for me? Thanks again.

You need to determine an imaginary line from the center of your axle slots which runs parallel to your steerer tube (I would do this by laying the fork down on something and drawing an actual line). Then - without moving the fork - establish another imaginary line in the center of the steerer and measure the distance between the two. You'll may be off by a mm or two but you'll get close enough.

http://www.bikeforest.com/CAD/faq/forkoffset.gif

Another (maybe easier) way of figuring this out without removing the fork from your bike is to hold a string tightly from the center of your head tube and pull it as straight as you can to just next to your axle - basically following the line in the above diagram - and measure the distance from the string to the center of the axle.

Thanks a ton for that, Scrod. I really appreciate it.

One more quick question: What size steerer should I be looking at for a 50cm Kilo TT frame? Thanks.

Length? You'll most likely need to have the threads extended and the steerer cut to the right length by your local shop, as threaded forks ususally come long enough to fit just about any size frame and have about 5cm of threads at the top.

Soma sells threaded forks in different lengths that should work with the Kilo TT >>> http://store.somafab.com/sothfo.html

Edit - The OP already knows this, but this statement is still true.