Buying new forks, what do I need to know?

[Shewie]

Another noob question, if I wanted to look for a carbon fork to replace my Rockshox RL, what numbers do I need to know?

Current spec:
Sonder Broken Road
Rockshox Reba RL-A8 - 15x110mm Boost - tapered steerer - 100mm travel - 51mm offset
FSA Orbit C-40-ACB headset/7.8mm spacer

Any other things I'd need to include in the costs? Axle? Crown race? New headset? Random tools?

I've seen other threads asking for recommendations so I'll check those out, I just wanted to make sure I was looking at the right spec.

I expect the price might put me off but no harm in looking

[Piemonster]

Axle will come with your forks

Just use the same headset, I just swap the crown race over if I change forks.

A cutting guide for steerers is a worthwhile investment.

I don’t think you really need anything, maybe a star fanged nut but that’s about it. (I’ve Rebas I use with a Broken Road btw and have just fitted Travers Prongs)

Edit, if your using carbon forks maybe you’ll want a expanding plug type thing instead of a star fangled nut.

[ssnowman]

I bought a carbon one for my Broken Road off ebay. It cost about £95 and came with the axle. Fitting is pretty easy, the hardest part was getting the disc brake caliper aligned correctly. There's no need to change the headset.

[ScotRoutes]

The axle should come with the fork.

You should be able to use your existing headset. You'll have to remove the "crown race" from the Rebas and fit it to the new forks. If it's not already split, then a broad, flat blade screwdriver will get it off. A junior hacksaw will split it to make it easier to transfer in future.

You will likely need a hacksaw to shorten the steerer on your new forks. If it's a carbon steerer then as fine a blade as you can find. I use an old stem as a saw guide.

For a metal steerer you will need a Star Fangled Nut. These are best fitted with the proper tool. For a carbon steerer, an expanding bung will be required.

For a 100mm 29er fork you will want a rigid fork with an Axle-to-Crown (A2C) of around 490.mm.

Something like this

https://www.carboncycles.cc/?p=1768&

[psling]

If your new forks are going to be rigid you'll need to specify the Axle - Crown measurement so that the geometry that the frame is designed to is not overly affected.

Scrub that, Colin's already covered it above ^^

[Piemonster]

That carboncycles fork isn’t boost Is it? The OP will need boost forks most likely for a broken road?

[sean_iow]

what numbers do I need to know?

If your budget stretches to it then this is the only number you need

01702 257302

Travers Bikes

[faustus]

This one is boost from Exotic but out of stock https://www.carboncycles.cc/index.php?s=0&c=103&p=1897 This would also do as it's a longer A-C https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/FOSEC27/s ... -29er-fork

If you go for a carbon steerer also use carbon assembly paste to help the bung grip in the steerer, nothing worse than slippage and wobbly headset...

[Piemonster]

Or hang on for a month or so and have these for postage costs. Need to make sure I’m happy with the Travers Prongs first.



Chinese EBay Carbon so I’m not ‘selling’ as such.

Can’t recall the A2C off hand but I know I checked it was suitable with Sonder first.

[jameso]

100mm 29er sus fork is ~510mm long so a rigid 475-485mm would be a good match. 483mm was a common length for a while.

[AndyTheBikeGuy]

Might be worth getting in touch with Neil at Alpkit and ask him about their new carbon forks, they provided one with my custom build that I presume they'll start selling at some point soon.

[Shewie]

Thanks folks, great info as always

And Piemonster, if things work out with your Travers I wouldn’t mind giving those Chinese forks a try. I might get an idea and could pass them on if I buy something else.

I’ll do some more reading over the weekend and see what’s involved

[Piemonster]

Yeh you can have them all going well with the Travers.

Will message in a few weeks

[Piemonster]

Thanks folks, great info as always

And Piemonster, if things work out with your Travers I wouldn’t mind giving those Chinese forks a try. I might get an idea and could pass them on if I buy something else.

I’ll do some more reading over the weekend and see what’s involved

Forks now available if you’re still keen?