[triangleforge]

Much to my amazement & delight, I might actually be in the market for a carbon fiber fork for a new CX bike I'm specing out right now. While I haven't completely decided the carbon vs. steel question, I did want to get some opinions on the various carbon fiber forks on (or soon to be on) the market:

Alpha Q: Sounds like, under the new True Temper regime, they've gotten some of their quality issues under control. I've heard great things about the way these ride, but $450 is a lot to swallow for a fork.

Wound Up: I've also heard that they redesigned the crown for this year to finally get adequate tire clearance. I don't know if this affects the spacing of the brake bosses, which used to require cut-down pads or reversed pads. I like the look of the Wound Up, but again the price is mighty steep.

Reynolds Ouzo Pro Cross: Apparently available this spring. I really like the Ouzo Pro on my road bike. I've no idea what the price will be when it hits the market.

Winwood: Somewhat more reasonable price, a little more weight than the others, but nothing extreme. Those of you that have had them for awhile, how are they holding up?

And while I'm at it, has anyone tried the Morati? Again, the price makes me take a deep breath, but asking's free, I suppose...

And, while I'm at it, diehard steel fork fans should weigh in now -- that's all I've ever ridden on my CX bike, and I'm still persuadable.

Cheers!

 

[snwbdrhoon]

Hey.

I love my Sycip steel fork. The best part is that if it gets bend 9 times out of 10 it can be bent back. But I also drool over a carbon fork.

Also another Ti fork to consider is the Sibex one...

Travis Brown and Mark Gullickson can't be wrong....


http://www.sibexsports.com/

 

[pin96]

Go with the Winwood. Great ride, very durable and works great with my steel Surly!

Winwood: Somewhat more reasonable price, a little more weight than the others, but nothing extreme. Those of you that have had them for awhile, how are they holding up?



And, while I'm at it, diehard steel fork fans should weigh in now -- that's all I've ever ridden on my CX bike, and I'm still persuadable.

Cheers![/QUOTE]

 

[escamillo]

The Morati cx fork will run you about 580 clams. Eeek. The reynolds new uzo cross fork will not be available until july or there abouts also supposed to be cheaper than the "Q" fork, but not by much. Still might be worth the weight to be the first one on the block to ride it.

e

 

[dlbcx]

Forks

One piece of advice that I got from Brent Steelman, was to make sure and get 1 1/8 in. steerer for any brand of carbon fork. He felt that a 1 in. steerer just won't hold up under cross racing.

 

[atpjunkie]

agreed on the 1"

most cx rigs have many rise spacers which combined with the abuse of cx is a recipe for steer tube failure

 

[escamillo]

most cx rigs have many rise spacers which combined with the abuse of cx is a recipe for steer tube failure

How true. You should have no more than 3/4" in spacers on that tube! Also the less you have in spacer height the more you gain in HT stiffness.

 

[jnichols959]

How true. You should have no more than 3/4" in spacers on that tube! Also the less you have in spacer height the more you gain in HT stiffness.

If he ends up with the wound up then he can go for more spacers (according to wound up) because of the aluminum sleeve that is inside the carbon steerer. I don't remember the limit they told me via email but it was way above the commonly held limits for carbon steerer forks. I can dig through my email from home if anyone wants the real number.

 

[triangleforge]

Extended Head Tube

If he ends up with the wound up then he can go for more spacers (according to wound up) because of the aluminum sleeve that is inside the carbon steerer. I don't remember the limit they told me via email but it was way above the commonly held limits for carbon steerer forks. I can dig through my email from home if anyone wants the real number.

I'm also thinking -- whatever I wind up with -- of specifying an extended head tube, to get rid of some of the spacer width entirely.

Thanks for all the insight!

 

[D_man]

If you get the Alpha Q w/ the titanium steerer, doesn't the spacer concern go away?

 

[atpjunkie]

good call. and get a 1.125 steerer. I run about 3/4 of spacers (have 1" and 1.125" forks) but use steel forks so it's a non-issue.

 

[escamillo]

If you get the Alpha Q w/ the titanium steerer, doesn't the spacer concern go away?

With the all carbon Q fork you have to epoxy the headset set screw nut into the steer tube. Thus loose any future options on triming your steer tube as you dial in your position. If you already know what you like this is a non issue. You wouldn't have to worry about that with the Ti steer tube option. But, isn't Ti difficult to cut?

e

 

[motta]

Alpha Q

Light and strong, and because of the insert you JB weld into the steer tube they allow you 80mm of height above the top of the headset. This equals about 4 to 4.5 cm of spacers depending on the height of the stem.

 

[bud wiser]

my story...

I won't be answering your question directly, but like the others, I have an opinion on the matter.

I have a Steelman Eurocross that was mounted on my car's roof rack (fork mount) when I accidentally drove under a low power line. The line hooked onto the seat and pulled the bike sideways. One of the fork dropouts pulled out of the rack and was fine. However, the other was bent into a 45 degree angle. Of course, I was bummed.

I called Steelman and sent it in. In the meantime, I purchased a Wound Up carbon fork and rode it for about ten days while my original, steel fork was being repaired by Brent Steelman.

I did not care for the Wound Up. Turns out the length of the fork blades was about 1" longer than the Steelman fork. The extra length seemed to change the handling so that aggressive turns resulted in exaggerated steering. So one bit of advice is to make sure the fork you get matches the rake/length of the fork it's replacing.

Brent Steelman repaired my steel fork (no charge!) and sent it back to me. With it my bike returned to it's stable, predictable handling. Had the carbon fiber fork been on the bike when I drove under the power line, I would've trashed the fork with no hope of repair or warranty. As opposed to a minor inconvenience of living without the fork for a couple weeks, I would've been out around $400. I've kept the steel fork on and been happy with it ever since.

 

[AJS]

I can't speak about their CX fork because I haven't used it yet, but I really liked Wound-Up's regular road fork on my old Litespeed Tuscany. Never had a reliability/maintainence problem with it either.

 

[snwbdrhoon]

Brent Steelman repaired my steel fork (no charge!) and sent it back to me. With it my bike returned to it's stable, predictable handling. I've kept the steel fork on and been happy with it ever since.

so what did you do with your wound up? just curious...

and i am happy with my Sycip Steel fork....

 

[izzydog]

Crossers,

If you don't want to pay big dollar for a carbon fork, I can recommend a fork sold by chucksbikes.com. It's a name brand, unlabled tandem fork that Litespeed has spec'd on their cross bikes in the past--according to Chuck. It also appears on Santana tandems.

It is beefy, solid carbon fork and here's the good news: it's $150 bucks. Uh-huh.

Go to chucksbikes.com and look up forks. Ignore some of the "forbidden" messages that you might get, just keep clicking until you find the "700c tandem" fork.

I bought one last year and it has a really solid ride. It's 1.125" with an alu steerer and BIG legs. Like Julie Newmar...

Where was I?

Oh, right---the fork--Chuck shipped it right away and no complaints whatsoever with the transaction.

I'll post a URL for a pic of it on my bike in a day or two.

Cheers.

 

[dpb]

"chucks fork" details

Crossers,

If you don't want to pay big dollar for a carbon fork, I can recommend a fork sold by chucksbikes.com. It's a name brand, unlabled tandem fork that Litespeed has spec'd on their cross bikes in the past--according to Chuck. It also appears on Santana tandems.

It is beefy, solid carbon fork and here's the good news: it's $150 bucks. Uh-huh.

Go to chucksbikes.com and look up forks. Ignore some of the "forbidden" messages that you might get, just keep clicking until you find the "700c tandem" fork.

I bought one last year and it has a really solid ride. It's 1.125" with an alu steerer and BIG legs. Like Julie Newmar...

Where was I?

Oh, right---the fork--Chuck shipped it right away and no complaints whatsoever with the transaction.

I'll post a URL for a pic of it on my bike in a day or two.

Cheers.

Hey,

You wouldn't happen to have a weight on this puppy would you? How does it ride? I've been thinking of ordering from chuck before, but was a little sketched out by the web page. Still I've heard good things...

Cheers,
dpb

 

[izzydog]

DPB,

I may have the weight written down somewhere--I'll look around. It's not a super lightweight fork like an Ouzo Pro Road, but it feels lighter than most steel forks and its a whole lot stiffer. It rides great. It's not particularly twitchy on my setup and feels quite solid. If you like a flexier steel type fork thing, then this is not it. Which is not to say that it has a harsh feel--its quite comfortable, as most carbon forks would be. I really prefer carbon ANYTHING for cross because of its damping qualities and this fork seems to be stout enough to take the abuse. It also looks BEEFY. Lots of sexy carbon on there.

I had no problems whatsoever with Chucksbikes, but yes, the site seems a bit of a worry.

$150 is nuts for this thing. Get one while he still has 'em.

izzy