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What's the long term prognosis?
I can imagine 26 tyres and wheels will be around forever , forks I'm not so sure.
Stockpile a few whenever you see them at the right price and condition - it’s what I’ve done with various Marzocchi 55’s, some straight, some taper steerer.
I’d imagine choice will become limited but you will still be able to find something. You can still buy them new so they’ll be available for a while yet.
The market for them is getting smaller all the time as people change their bikes so those who don’t want to change will have less competition .
I like messing about with retro bikes and if you are patient you can find pretty much any part you want NOS. Some cost loads but they are there if you want them. I imagine even for the most ardent 26” fan there will come a time when it’s cheaper to buy a more modern bike or the price of the 26” parts becomes too high for those who can’t afford to change.
it is rather annoying.
straight steer forks* and tyre choices seem to be getting limited these days so I have stockpiled them
Prices of forks are silly i have some old rebas i bought for £150[new] about 10 years ago I bet i would get about £100 for them now possibly more.
* If tapered i would just use 650B
Is there any device which would allow tapered steerers to be installed in a straight steerer frame?
<div class="bbp-reply-author">jekkyl
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<div class="bbp-reply-content">Is there any device which would allow tapered steerers to be installed in a straight steerer frame?
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I mentioned this last night to @Molegrips. I'm absolutely sure than when tapered first arrived on the scene there was a headset you could buy that would allow you to fit a tapered steerer in a straight frame, but it didn't fit all frames.
Here it is!
That's the same as the Hope Pick and Mix 2 + H combo as coincidentally featured in today's Fresh Goods Friday.
It will only fit 44 mm headtubes in which the headset is semi-integrated (aka zero stack or Intergral in Hope-speak), not true 1 1/8th headtubes with external headset cups.
That article is dated 2010! peej.
Consequences of a slightly larger wheel at the front? You could dial down the travel or cut the steerer to achieve the same ride height but I can't imagine having a slightly larger front wheel would impinge on your ride too badly.
What can I say, I've got a long memory!
They still make them.
Will that Cane Creek work on a bike with external cups? 2007 orange 5.
I still can't get my head round all this semi integrated blah blah.
This should help:
You cannot use a tapered steerer in a conventional, old school, 1 1/8" headtube whatever. With a steel frame and a sympathetic frame-builder, you might just be able to install a tapered headtube,by chopping the old one out and welding in a new one, but I can't imagine it would be easy or worth it.
With a 44mm headtube, you can fit an external lower cup ad run a tapered-steerer fork that way. You'll add some height at the front end compared to a straight steerer 1 1/8" fork using a zero stack headset, but it'll fit fine.
You cannot use a zero-stack headset lower with a 44mm headtube and a tapered steerer - so no to lower zero stack, integrated or whatever inte* term it is this week.
I think the big issue right now isn't so much finding 'a fork', but if you want a top-end one with the latest technology. My original Ragley Ti had its original old school headtube swapped for a 44mm one as part of a warranty repair which means it can run a new generation Pike, using an external lower cup which isn't possible with the original headtube.
Could do with the mag doing a piece on it and getting some thoughts from the products team at RS & Fox as to their plan for the future. Forks is one those parts where the cost seems ridiculously high in comparison to other components.
Fox are still selling the 32 in 1.125 however its not their lighter lower casting or lighter csu and its grip only.
RS have the reba rl and sektor gold available in 26 straight.
Suntour just added the epixon 9 26 straight so theres still options and i imagine a reasonabke amount of this will be driven by the bigger brands providing to the kids market
I've just bought a set of forks for my VN Amazon on the basis that straight-steerer, QR forks for tourers/gravel bikes are also unlikely to be in supply for long. I can imagine a replacement steerer happening at some point.
I guess the question is about how long we should expect all old standards to be around.