Mathteacher
New Member
- Region
- USA
Just bought a used Roadster V2, and there was an apparent hairline crack on the fork just below the headtube. I have no idea how it happened, no obvious sign of impact. I contacted ride one up, they did get back to me but never really provided an exact price/timeline for a replacement for it, rather suggested going to a local shop. Being that the fork is aluminum, I decided to look elsewhere. I think aluminum is the worst material as it is very unforgiving/rigid, and not very strong if compromised in any way. After riding it for over 100 miles, I took the original fork off and squeezed with one hand … see results below. Caution: if in doubt don’t ride it!
I looked around to find a replacement that had the same axle the crown height to maintain the geometry of the bike, that measurement can vary greatly across all forks. Also needed at least 9 1/2 inches of steerer tube and wanted to be able to fit a wider front tire if I wanted to go 32mm plus. My measured axle to crown I was just over 400 mm.
I looked at Chinese Carbon forks on Amazon and eBay, Ended up being turned off by concerns over the safety of those forks, inability to fit a wider tire, and most had too short of an axle crown height.
Final decision came down to two forks. A Dimension hybrid steel fork, and a surly crosscheck fork. The Surly certainly looks cooler than the unicrown dimension fork, both have cantilever/V brake studs so new front brakes would be required.
I ended up choosing the dimension fork, also grabbing some Tektro m530 v-brakes. Looks a bit different, the steel fork feels (a lot) more forgiving, probably added a quarter of a pound. and the v-brake is WAY more powerful. Added bonus is that I can put on a much wider front tire and still get it on and off easily without deflating. Total cost under $100 shipped with a 20% coupon. Install took about 1.5 hours with reusing the star nut & crown spacer thing, cutting existing cable housing, and installing new brakes.
I looked around to find a replacement that had the same axle the crown height to maintain the geometry of the bike, that measurement can vary greatly across all forks. Also needed at least 9 1/2 inches of steerer tube and wanted to be able to fit a wider front tire if I wanted to go 32mm plus. My measured axle to crown I was just over 400 mm.
I looked at Chinese Carbon forks on Amazon and eBay, Ended up being turned off by concerns over the safety of those forks, inability to fit a wider tire, and most had too short of an axle crown height.
Final decision came down to two forks. A Dimension hybrid steel fork, and a surly crosscheck fork. The Surly certainly looks cooler than the unicrown dimension fork, both have cantilever/V brake studs so new front brakes would be required.
I ended up choosing the dimension fork, also grabbing some Tektro m530 v-brakes. Looks a bit different, the steel fork feels (a lot) more forgiving, probably added a quarter of a pound. and the v-brake is WAY more powerful. Added bonus is that I can put on a much wider front tire and still get it on and off easily without deflating. Total cost under $100 shipped with a 20% coupon. Install took about 1.5 hours with reusing the star nut & crown spacer thing, cutting existing cable housing, and installing new brakes.
