Fork crown for fillet brazed frame?

[Jesper]

Hello

While researching for a new custom frame I came across this forum, which seems friendly and with a slant towards custom frames.

I've pretty much settled on a Mercian pro lugless, mostly due to price. Almost all the gorgeous american custom frames I see on this forum are far more expensive and by the time they get here (Denmark) and get through customs (+ 25% + fees) they are out of my price range. Also I've only read good things about Mercian.

The Lugless Pro model comes with a Cinelli Aero fork crown which I don't really like the look of (see picture), even though I can see where they are going with a fork without external lugs for a lugless frame. I know it isn't, but I think it looks sort of flimsy compared to the head tube.

My favourite fork crown is the flat crown, but I'm not sure how it will look on a fillet brazed frame. Does anybody have a picture of this or other fork crowns that you think look good on a fillet brazed frame?

Thank you
Jesper

[pale scotsman]

Uhm nice picture, it's one of my old bikes btw. The cinelli sc sloping fork crown may look wimpy, but it's super strong. Rivendell had a write up about the history of the fork crown not too long ago in the rivendell reader. Check out David Kirk's site for some ideas, www.kirkframeworks.com

http://www.kirkframeworks.com/DM%20fork%20400.jpg

[xcandrew]

Some cool fork crowns:


http://www.bikecult.com/works/archive/04bicycles/pjohnsonJB04.html

http://oldmountainbikes.com/ritchey/dads_bike.html

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/7482/philbrooktt10ty2.jpg

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/9861/philbrooktt2rc7.jpg

[catulle]

It hardly gets any better than this...

[atmo]

It hardly gets any better than this...
stick a fork in it. it's done atmo.

[Tom Kellogg]

We use this crown for most of our track frames and even though we don't build lugless frames, this would be my choice since it has no lug edges and even appears to have no crown. Everest is the casting house. I think that Long Chen makes a similar crown as well.
http://spectrum-cycles.com/images/Image Pages/p41.htm

[Big Dan]

Steel fork baby............yes............ :)

[Jesper]

Thank you for all the great suggestions so far. Scotsman, the Hujsak looks really nice. I plan to have the Mercian painted in the same fire engine (or perhaps Ferrari!) red.

I really like the crown on the Philbrook :banana: (and this smiley!), the sharp top edge is much more elegant than the soft contours of the Cinelli. On the Ceeway website I found a crown that might be something like that (see picture compared to Cinelli). I've also found a rather bad picture of a frame by someone named A.S. Gillott with a pretty nice crown.

I have noticed that quite a few builders use externally lugged crowns with fillet brazed frames, but I think it clashes a bit with the smooth lines of the fillets.

More suggestions very welcome!

[dbrk]

We use this crown for most of our track frames ... snip...http://spectrum-cycles.com/images/Image Pages/p41.htm


Oh my. I have a few projects in line but I simply gotta have one of these 30th Anniversary Spectrums...it is just the bees and all other knees.

dbrk