YAY! Another "what do I want?" thread! Gravel fork edition

[makoti]

Getting a new bike. Front fork will take up to a 38. Thinking about upgrading it to something that can at least match the rear 42, if not exceed it. Going to be running the Fulcrum RR5 disc wheels.
I know nada about forks. Carbon preferred. Suggestions?

[prototoast]

Most forks rated for a 38 tire (e.g. enve GRD, Columbus gravel) have a ~380mm axle-to-crown measurement. Most forks rated for 40+ tires have a ~395 axle-to-crown measurement. To swap one of the former for one of the latter will significantly alter the fit and handling of your bike.

If you have a 44mm external cup lower headset, you could swap to an inset headset and use a Ritchey straight steerer fork. That still has the ~395 a-c, but you'll lose ~10mm from the headset so you'll be closer. Some people aren't fond of the aesthetics of straight steerers in large headtubes, so if you're one of them, you might not like that option.

Alternatively, your current fork might be conservatively rated at 38. I know of people who have fit true 40-42mm tires, and they're fine as long as it's not too muddy.

[makoti]

Originally Posted by prototoast

Most forks rated for a 38 tire (e.g. enve GRD, Columbus gravel) have a ~380mm axle-to-crown measurement. Most forks rated for 40+ tires have a ~395 axle-to-crown measurement. To swap one of the former for one of the latter will significantly alter the fit and handling of your bike.

If you have a 44mm external cup lower headset, you could swap to an inset headset and use a Ritchey straight steerer fork. That still has the ~395 a-c, but you'll lose ~10mm from the headset so you'll be closer. Some people aren't fond of the aesthetics of straight steerers in large headtubes, so if you're one of them, you might not like that option.

Alternatively, your current fork might be conservatively rated at 38. I know of people who have fit true 40-42mm tires, and they're fine as long as it's not too muddy.

Thank you for all this & I should have said it is being built for me. It was suggested that I consider a fork that will handle this but while I'll get suggestions from the builder, I wanted to look at things and know more about them (which I now know more than I did). So changing the handling is not an issue, since the bike will be built with the fork in mind

[slowpoke]

Personally, I lean towards forks with a fork crown mount for a dyno light or front rack. Unfortunately this is not common, but off the top of my head I know Whisky, Spork, and Fern x Allygn have this.

This may be have mounts than you need, but Bikepacking has a list of forks with bottlecage mounts: https://bikepacking.com/index/forks-...e-cage-mounts/

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by makoti

I know nada about forks. Carbon preferred. Suggestions?

Depends on what you want out of the bike. Location says NoVa, and a 38-40mm tire is plenty for the local stuff. If you want more clearance, there's lots of options - do you need mounts of fenders? That will drive some of the choices. Whisky and Ritchey make nice forks without mounts, with mounts there's options like the Rodeo Labs spork.

I think there's likely not much difference in any of the forks and most of us would fail the pepsi challenge if we tried a couple on the same bike.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by makoti

Thank you for all this & I should have said it is being built for me. It was suggested that I consider a fork that will handle this but while I'll get suggestions from the builder, I wanted to look at things and know more about them (which I now know more than I did). So changing the handling is not an issue, since the bike will be built with the fork in mind

If you're having it built for you, I'd talk to the builder about which forks he/she might use. Enve, Columbus, Whisky, Rodeo Labs, Ritchey all make great forks that fit 42+ tires, but there are different considerations for each. Some only come in certain rakes, which may or may not work with your desired handling characteristics. Some have extra mounts for racks/fenders, some don't. Some have different headtube/headset requirements--again, without knowing more abut the build, it's hard to know which one would be better than the others.

[unterhausen]

seems to me that all the good forks are 395 A-C, so I would just pick one of them.

I usually build my own forks, but when I designed my all road fork it just naturally fell out that it was 395 A-C

[makoti]

Originally Posted by prototoast

If you're having it built for you, I'd talk to the builder about which forks he/she might use. Enve, Columbus, Whisky, Rodeo Labs, Ritchey all make great forks that fit 42+ tires, but there are different considerations for each. Some only come in certain rakes, which may or may not work with your desired handling characteristics. Some have extra mounts for racks/fenders, some don't. Some have different headtube/headset requirements--again, without knowing more abut the build, it's hard to know which one would be better than the others.

This is, of course, what will happen. He suggested I think about options, and as I said, I never really thought about forks, so looking for suggestions on what to investigate. I know we'll run into supply line issues on Ritchey, at least. I've looked at Whiskey, Lauf, and Enve so far today. I know much more about forks than I did 5 hours ago.

[party time]

rodeo labs spork does it all, looks backordered forever though

https://www.rodeo-labs.com/shop/fork...abs-spork-3-0/

[Hilltopperny]

Salsa makes a nice fork that has lots of clearance. I fit a 1.95 mountain tire in the one on my old Warbird. I am currently running a Whisky fork on my Firefly and it looks like it would have plenty of clearance for a 42mm tire.

Lots of good options out there, but these two forks work well and should easily have the clearance needed.

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[unterhausen]

Originally Posted by Hilltopperny

Salsa makes a nice fork that has lots of clearance.

Salsa makes a lot of forks, are you talking about the Waxwing deluxe?

[Hilltopperny]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

Salsa makes a lot of forks, are you talking about the Waxwing deluxe?

Yes, I believe it was a waxwing deluxe.

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