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Come the end of the month (payday) I am going to be buying a cheapish cromo fork for a singlespeed cyclocross budget build (not racing!).
Looking for something with disc compatibility and a decent bit of boing. Trying to build a light bike but willing to sacrifice weight gain in the case of the fork.
Got an aluminium rigid fork onmy MTB - don't like it.
Can't afford carbon.
any opinions appreciated (I may regret not adding a caveat to that)
Ride a couple of early 90s bikes with cromo forks and love the feel.
So my question is: Is the Croix de fer fork better than the offerings from on-one? The prices are all £50-60 so that is not an issue. I want the friendliest fork.
It will be ridden lightly offroad.
Nowt wrong with a Kaff fork.
Might have a carbon fork, disc or vee.... Chinese jobby, subject to lbs getting the crown race off it tomorrow. Email me if you want pics etc 😀
I've heard some of thos chinese carbon forks have a harsh ride...have you ridden on the fork yourself?
Yes, rode them off and on road and had no issue with them. Fitted to a surly crosscheck but decided I'm going proper old school with cantis and all steel....
hmm, thinking about it, but I reckon I'm edging towards steel anyway. let me know how you get on with the crown race (as it's not a cartridge bearing I reckon most will be compatible) as I have a smoothie awaiting my new fork. pls post "now sold" if you get another buyer; I would appreciate that.
Hi Mick,
TBH I cant offer much by way of comparison between different CX fork materials - Ive got a steel pompetamine fork on the pompetamine and had the same on the pompino until I swapped that for a planet X carbon road fork.
The A-C is so short though Im not sure there's a whole lot of sproing in them whichever material you go for. My experience of riding rougher trails ([i]q.v.[/i] the Cevennes thread) is that drop bars and how you use them have a far greater effect than any theoretical suspension in a rigid material.
When youre ragging around on skinny tyres, drop bars and 700c forks, no material in a rigid fork is going to do much to compensate for rough ground. You;ll have to do that on your own.
For the relatively small cost of a pompetamine disk fork, Id start there.
Appreciated, stoner. FWIW, I already have the midge on standby (along with some very attractive, flower-embossed bar-tape).