Mark, I think you will find that the extra fork attachment is there to stop fork judder and not for strength. I owned and raced an F.W.Evans tandem trike for many years which use to get terrible steering wobbles when doing over 27 mph. We spoke to several top London builders about the problem and they advised this same attachment. Apparently during the 20's and 30's when triplet racing was very popular on the British tracks, Southall and Wylde brother matches etc. All their machines were constructed so. I believe this harks back to the Victorian and Edwardian era when pacing Quads, triplets and Quints were in common usage. Don't the Indians and Chinese employ the same thing on there roadsters to stiffen the whole thing up when carrying heavy loads on their bikes? Anyway we had the brace fitted and no more steering wobbles on the Tandem Trike. Best wishes Mick B UK.
>
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/
>
> Wow, truly a piece of work, and the answer to the
> question no one was
> asking.
>
> I hope that fork is strong enough without the
> "brace" (it probably is),
> because that extra two pounds of iron bolted on the
> front does
> absolutely nothing to strengthen the fork! Just
> another in a long
> history of people who misunderstand the girder
> principle.
>
> In case you think I am ragging on Trevor Jarvis or
> Flying Gate, I am
> not. The frame, though silly in some ways, has some
> very good things
> where it counts - real big top and bottom tubes.
> The silly part that
> makes it a "Gate" doesn't really detract, since it's
> where it doesn't
> matter so much - the builder can show some
> creativity there as long as
> the top and bottom tubes are big enough. Which they
> are.
>
> And the silly non-girder was added by the seller I
> believe, not the
> builder, and as an amateur he's allowed to not know
> how to design a
> girder. I've seen plenty of pros who got it wrong.
> I will state
> categorically that the fake struts don't weaken the
> fork at all, and it
> appears to have been made strong to begin with (as
> far as one can tell
> in such pictures), with Reynolds Jack Taylor tandem
> blades and a Haden
> crown, and what looks to be an oversized steerer.
>
> Certainly at the current going price it's a
> screamin' deal. (Maybe
> literally?)
>
> Mark Bulgier
> Seattle WA USA
>
> (My OT '33 Excelsior has thoroughly well-designed,
> lightweight fork
> struts that massively strengthen the fork. Ignaz
> knew how to do it
> then, but then people forgot. Or more to the point,
> bikes were not
> designed by engineers anymore.)
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>
Thats all for now. Keep those wheels spinning, in your memories if not still on the road. Be lucky Mick Butler Huntingdon UK.
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