Where have all the good steel forks gone?

[559Rando]

I have been spending a lot of time over the past week scouring the Internet for steel fork like this:

440mm A-C
1 1/8" steerer
Disc brakes
Tack brazeons
Clearance for 2" or more
Preferably with a cast or segmented crown
Probably with about 45mm of rake
Not a boat anchor

This would be for commuting and overnights, not a lot of weight to carry but my daily commute sometimes involves 20# or so.

Short of going custom (too $$$), the only solution I'm finding is the Surly Ogre non-suspension corrected fork. But it weighs 3.1#. otherwise it checks the boxes.

Any other forks I should look at? I've look at Soma, Kona, Salsa, Dimension, Origin8, Sunlite, Nashbar, et. al. and the Ogre non-suspension corrected is the best so far but I'm not excited about it.




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[Ken Robb]

I guess a fork strong enough to meet all your requirements will have to be rather heavy but probably not a "boat anchor".

[tv_vt]

"Good" steel fork - ask any custom builder. You get exactly what you want, and the price differential is not huge (imo, of course). And you can get it painted however you want.

[FlashUNC]

Custom. They've all gone custom.

[weisan]

Surly

May have to dial down your excitement level.

[unterhausen]

I'm curious what forks would have met the OP's requirements in the past.

[559Rando]

Originally Posted by tv_vt

"Good" steel fork - ask any custom builder. You get exactly what you want, and the price differential is not huge (imo, of course). And you can get it painted however you want.

Dang. Yeah, they're like 100% starting...many are 300%-500% more. Dang.

[559Rando]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

I'm curious what forks would have met the OP's requirements in the past.

I don't know much about modern MTBs and have never bought an aftermarket fork except for a Surly Steamroller fork for my wife's GT Tachyong. While the Surly was an upgrade from the stock GT fork, it's 1kg and I always thought it was too heavy.

I've had great experience with the forks on my bikes from Travis Cooper (custom builder), Rawland rSogn, Nova blades on a fork my buddy built and vintage Raleigh, Trek, Specialized, Peugeot, Schwinn, Nishiki and others.

And so I turn now to the world wide web for it's broader experience.

[p nut]

I don’t know much about light/compliant MTB disc forks. But if interested, I’ve got a Surly Troll Fork that I’m not using. 453mm version, I believe. Black and loooong steerer tube. Disc and v brake mounts.

Maybe look at Salsa A La Carte forks as well. Although I don’t think they were considered light.

[Kontact]

There probably isn't that exact fork on the market because there it would be hard to find a matching lugged disc frame that didn't already come with its own fork.

And I don't think you're likely to find a low cost lightweight disc fork - especially a "compliant" one. Discs are really hard on forks with many failures in recent history of lightly built forks.

You might take a look at Velo Orange. I didn't scour the specifics, but if they have any of the forks that come with their disc framesets they might be what you're looking for.

[batman1425]

Originally Posted by p nut

I don’t know much about light/compliant MTB disc forks. But if interested, I’ve got a Surly Troll Fork that I’m not using. 453mm version, I believe. Black and loooong steerer tube. Disc and v brake mounts.

Maybe look at Salsa A La Carte forks as well. Although I don’t think they were considered light.

Short of going custom, I think the Troll is the best option. The 2" clearance is the rub in my opinion. Plenty of options up to about 40c-ish.

[559Rando]

Originally Posted by batman1425

Short of going custom, I think the Troll is the best option. The 2" clearance is the rub in my opinion. Plenty of options up to about 40c-ish.

If I go narrower (say, this Grand Bois Hetre which is 42mm), what else would you recommend?

[sandyrs]

There are not plenty of options for 440 a-c. That’s way longer than the more common 390-400 a-c of cross forks.

[pavel]

What is the use case for a 440 a-c fork??

[ColonelJLloyd]

Originally Posted by 559Rando

I have been spending a lot of time over the past week scouring the Internet for steel fork like this:

440mm A-C
1 1/8" steerer
Disc brakes
Tack brazeons
Clearance for 2" or more
Preferably with a cast or segmented crown
Probably with about 45mm of rake
Not a boat anchor

This would be for commuting and overnights, not a lot of weight to carry but my daily commute sometimes involves 20# or so.

Short of going custom (too $$$), the only solution I'm finding is the Surly Ogre non-suspension corrected fork. But it weighs 3.1#. otherwise it checks the boxes.

Any other forks I should look at? I've look at Soma, Kona, Salsa, Dimension, Origin8, Sunlite, Nashbar, et. al. and the Ogre non-suspension corrected is the best so far but I'm not excited about it.

So you think this fork should exist off the shelf, huh?

If I wanted all these criteria met I'd be hitting up Joel at Clockwork.