Re: [CR]Trail, head angle and fork rake

(Example: Framebuilders:Richard Moon)

In-Reply-To: <025401c2b367$d26da680$ca247044@nebi.com>
References: <CATFOOD7UnL8g3CmFZj000022ce@catfood.nt.phred.org> <a0501040cba3b9fcf0cdd@[69.3.70.21]>
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 12:39:21 -0800
To: "Raoul Delmare" <R.Delmare@Charter.net>
From: "Jan Heine" <heine@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]Trail, head angle and fork rake
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

Agreed! Worse, tandem carbon forks "fit any 700C tandem" - sold by a well-known and well-respected tandem maker (Co-Motion). If I put that into my Jack Taylor, which now has a huge fork rake, the handling would be dramatically different. I doubt it would be an improvement... (especially since that handling would be hard to improve).

A guy came into Il Vecchio's recently, riding his Colnago (I don't work there, but happened to be in), and said "I need a carbon fork, for a 1" threadless headset. Do you have one." I left the shop before I could say anything to discourage the guy, leaving it to George to deal with him. I am so glad I don't sell bikes!

I hope you are OK with my posting your response and my response to your response to the list.

Jan Heine, Seattle


>
>How can you just stick a replacement front fork ( at random ) onto your
>already sensitive racing bicycle , and expect things to "just work out for
>the best" ??
>
>
> Raoul Delmare
> Marysville Kansas
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Jan Heine" <heine@mindspring.com>
>To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 2:20 PM
>Subject: [CR]Trail, head angle and fork rake
>
>
>> Trail on older bikes: The more the fork is raked (usually in
>> conjunction with a shallow head angle), the more trail is affected by
>> tire size. For example, the 1952 Herse shown in Riv. Reader 26 had a
>> very fast "criterium"-like handling when first equipped with 30 mm
>> wide tires (good quality 650B tires that are wider are a bit hard to
>> find). The downside was a slight instability - I found myself
>> touching bars with the guy riding next to me.
>>
>> Changing to 37 mm wide tires solved the problem, and imbued the bike
>> with the handling it should have: stable, yet responsive.
>>
>> So by changing tire size, you can play with the handling of a bike.
>> Or mess it up...
>>
>> A more complete discussion of this topic will be in a future issue of
>> Vintage Bicycle Quarterly (with illustrations, etc.)
>>
>> Jan Heine, Seattle
>>
>> (Makes one wonder about bikes that supposedly do it all, from
>> criteriums on 20 mm tires to fire roads on 45 mm tires!)
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