Fork recommendations?
 

Picked up an Aventon Mataro frame and I'm looking for a fork. I do mostly city riding but would like to be able to take it out to the velodrome on the weekends. I have had bad experience with carbon fiber so I would prefer cromoly or aluminum. Currently I'm looking at these:

City Grounds | Pake Track Fork

Eastside Fixed Gear/Track Fork | Fyxation

Which is better? Or what else should I look at?

Thanks,
JGAN

The mataro is speced for a 45 mms rake. Why are you moving down?

Both are ugly unicrown forks and will look like ****

What does that mean?

People are so weird. Just use an Aventon fork having the correct rake.

The rake of a fork is a measurement of how far forward it is angled and has an effect on the handling of a bike and possibly also the clearances. Every bike frame is designed with a specific fork rake in mind. There is some amount of leeway but for best results you should stay as close to the spec'ed rake as possible. I got 45 mms from looking at the spec of the frame on the Aventon site. The aventon mataro fork on city grounds however seems to have a 35 mm rake, so I don't know. Their carbon forks have a 45 mm rake. It may be that the frame was spec'ed differently for different year models.

I meant what does unicrown fork mean, but thanks.

Unicrown means that the two fork legs curve in at the top and are welded directly to the steerer tube, whereas a traditional fork has a seperate top piece called the crown that is usually brazed to the fork legs.

In the detail paragraph it mentions 35mm rake, but just below that it says 45mm. It is probably 45mm and CG just fudged up on the description

Oh, no doubt CG has it totally screwed up, since they also state that is has a lugged flat crown. More than likely, they have confused this fork with a Soma Rush fork, which has 38mm rake and a lugged flat crown.

Edit - I just looked up the Pake fork on the RG website, and it has the rake at 38mm as well, so that is probably the correct value. Anyway, the best bet is to get a fork that matches the frame.

Care to tell us your "bad experience" with crabon?

Turns out a LBS carried the original Aventon fork, picked it up and it was a good choice!

Bought a bike with an improperly setup full carbon Orbea fork -- had an overtightened stem and a starnut inserted in the carbon steerer tube. First ride out, pull up on the handlebars to get over a bump and the whole top of the steerer tube breaks off, ending in me eating $h!t fast.

http://i.imgur.com/ofNIKWb.jpg

****, that's gnarly. But that's a bad experience with a crummy mechanic, not a bad experience with carbon.

That photo makes no sense at all. You're talking about a broken fork steerer and show a photo of a broken crank spindle ? Also, a starnut should never be used on a carbon fork steerer tube.

Huh?

Yeah, you're NEVER supposed to use a starnut on a carbon steerer. If your crappy mechanic had used an expansion plug and knew even a little bit about what he was doing, that never would've happened.

Aventon makes both a full-carbon fork and a carbon fork w/ aluminum steerer that will have the correct rake for your frame. Pick one.

Edit - I didn't realize at first that your photo was sideways, so I now see that it is a photo of the headtube and not the bottom bracket.

Yea, I understand it was really a problem with setup rather than the carbon, but it's not a risk I'm willing to take again. Aluminum is perfectly fine for me.

Right, which is precisely why I suggested the Aventon carbon/aluminum fork. It has carbon blades and an aluminum steerer.

Have you ever ridden an aluminum fork? They are 100% horrendous. Why ask for help if you're not going to listen?

B-b-but, crabon is death, bro. Like, spontaneous asplosion.

Oh yeah, I forgot. I'm going to throw my Thunderdome's fork in the dumpster ASAP and throw a Pake unicrown on there.

Have fun at Kissena with a low end aluminum frame and an even worse aluminum fork.

Is Kissena really that rough ? Never been there, so just asking. For sure, I wouldn't want to ride that setup at Alkek.

OP - don't listen to any of those Negative Nancies...your new alu Aventon fork should be no problem at all :thumb:

http://i58.tinypic.com/5yb1g8.jpg http://i60.tinypic.com/xgmh6u.jpg http://i62.tinypic.com/2ypajyc.jpg

Just save your money and buy a Cinelli frameset. :)

Kissena's not the smoothest.