May the fork(s) be with you!

   A new friend contacted me a few weeks ago about an accident which caused a crushed fork blade, similar to the damage that had occurred to my Cannondale last autumn. Terry had received some misinformation from a couple people, and on a recommendation from a mutual friend, he contacted me to make sure to "get it right".

   He had been told that the fork on his 2012 Fuji Cross 1.0 was a tapered version, but just one look at the part told me something didn't quite match up. Forks with a tapered steerer, as the name implies, start at 1.5" at the crown and narrow to 1.275" for the length of the steerer tube

  Tapered forks were developed to increase the stiffness of the steerer and also to provide more bearing surface at the crown, where most of the downward force occurs between the fork and frame. I could tell Terry had a standard straight steerer, but the crown race did have a strange flare that made me think this must be something unusual. My suspicions were confirmed when I tried to remove the crown race, in case it would be needed on the replacement we hoped to purchase, and found the metal ring was epoxied in place!

The visual difference is obvious between a tapered steerer (left) and straight steerer.

The crown race on the Fuji fork

   Fuji's archive of bike parts really wasn't any help, because it pretty much told me what we had (for which we couldn't find an exact replacement) and gave us no idea what might work in its place. I enlisted the help of my buddies at Bikesport, since they have a much more elaborate search engine for bike parts at their disposal. When they gave me the unfortunate news that the only fork they could find that would work had a price tag over $300, I suggested to Terry that he might as well just buy a new frameset, since he could be positive the frame and fork will function properly together.

   He took me up on the prospect, made an eBay purchase and dropped off a Specialized S-Works Tricross SLX E-5 frameset - what is up with the crazy bicycle model names these days?!! We were a little annoyed to find the Fuji had a different bottom bracket and a larger diameter seatpost, but I intend to sell the frame to make up some of the cost of those replacement parts. Otherwise, swapping the excellent custom components from Terry's Fuji onto the Specialized should be a fairly simple process.

If you or anyone you know is in the market for a 54 cm frame, let me know!

   Down in the shop, I have a bunch of interesting projects planned, and since the semi-official cycling "season" is winding down, I should be able to pace myself to complete them. I will give plenty of details about each of those builds soon, but you can get a taste of what is coming up on my "For Sale and Projects in Progress" page.

   I've finally done some serious work on the Merckx Alu Team frame, stripping the nasty old paint to get it ready for a Belgian flag tri-color scheme. After scraping off the stripper gel, I like to take a wire wheel to steel frames, but I didn't want to scratch up the relatively soft aluminum. I found a really nice product by Dico called Nyalox, a nylon brush wheel that worked really well without damaging the frame.

   I also wrapped up building the Pinarello Treviso, as all the needed parts were at hand, and freeing up some space became a priority. We've been blessed by some terrific weather this fall, and I took the bike outside for some sunny photos:

   It's hard to believe it's almost November, and that means it's time for the Cycle Tech Turkey Trek. Everyone is invited for this ride at a social pace - bring friends and meet new friends! We'll start at the Betzwood Park trailhead and, as usual, ride the Schuylkill Trail into Philadelphia. This time we hope to do something a bit different and circle across to West Fairmount Park, past Exhibition Hall, and see the Japanese Garden, Fairmount Horticulture Center and Belmont Plateau. We'll reconnect to the Schuylkill Trail for the return trip via the Cynwyd Heritage Trail, which crosses the famous Manayunk Bridge.

   Hope you can join us for the 40-ish-mile loop, or ride along with us as long as you would like!

The Big Empty (sort of)

   Regular readers know of my frequent use of song titles for my blog entries (Stone Temple Pilots this time around), but the phrase definitely applies. The last two finished bicycles I had in stock left my shop since my last post, and I have since been devoting time to building up some of the frames that had hung in my rafters, as well as making some purchases for future projects.

   I found another Klein Stage Comp bicycle, pretty much exactly like the one I had built just over a month ago. I had plans to put a SRAM 1x10 drivetrain on that bicycle, but had my plans changed by a prospective customer. I had nearly all the parts collected for the "one by" (as the single front chainring configuration is nicknamed) assembly, so I had been on the lookout for a similar frame. I met a really nice Russian man in the Warminster area to pick up this Stage Comp twin.
   Discouraged by the availability of parts and the high prices when I could find them, I turned to the reliable strategy of buying a complete "donor" bicycle. In this case I was specifically looking for SRAM shift levers and came up with a relatively inexpensive Cannondale CAAD 9 that was in really nice condition and included a combo of Dura-Ace and SRAM parts.

   This bike will turn out to be a bit of project itself, as I plan to sell off the SRAM derailleurs and fill in the missing parts with appropriate Dura-Ace versions. In the meantime, the Klein was a fairly simple swap out of its vintage Shimano 105 components. Because the Stage Comp has plenty of clearance, I installed some gravel trail-friendly Michelin Krylion 2 Endurance 28mm tires.

   Again, I dig the color-changing Klein paint jobs, and while this Candy Blue isn't quite like the Purple Haze, and it doesn't show in the bright sun in which the photos below are taken, in low light angles it does show different hues of blue on the separate frame tubes.

   I mentioned acquiring a Francesco Moser Leader AX Evolution frameset from my customer who bought the Battaglin bicycle from me a few weeks ago. Somehow, I neglected to include a photo of the frameset in that post, but I had a very nice Campagnolo Chorus group sitting on my shelves with which to quickly finish off that project.

   Although the pro cycling season has been turned upside down by the COVID-19 outbreak, we have been treated to a truncated schedule packed full with some exiting racing. Most of us will never forget the dramatic, and somewhat heartbreaking, finish of the Tour de France, and there has been some incredible racing by young stars like Tadej Pogačar, Wout van Aert and Matthieu van der Poel.

   The moment that will stand out in my mind right now is Primož Roglič, he of the Tour de France losing time trial collapse, coming back to win the Queen of the Classics, Liège-Bastogne-Liège. It isn't quite like winning the Tour, but it is a hugely prestigious race, and a great consolation to very disappointing week for the Slovakian star.

   Much will be made of Julian Alaphilippe's premature celebration that allowed Roglič to pip the newly-crowned World Champion at the finish line, but an over-aggressive move in the sprint that nearly caused an accident had officials relegate the Frenchman to fifth place anyway. You'd think Deceuninck–Quick-Step manager Patrick Lefevere would have been all over Alaphilippe to celebrate AFTER crossing the finish line from now on, but amazingly, his team's current star nearly repeated the mistake in the next race!

   During the Flemish classic, De Brabantse Pijl, Alaphilippe counted out (of all people) the amazing van der Poel, and put his hands in the air in celebration a few meters before the finish line. He barely survived making the same mistake twice in quick succession!

   I heard that Alaphilippe joked about the incidents that he always likes to keep his fans guessing. A great line, but I doubt his coaches and sponsors will be entertained if this bad habit continues.

   I was crushed to hear that my favorite race, Paris-Roubaix, has been officially cancelled due to another coronavirus outbreak in the north of France, but the Ronde de Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) is supposed to go on as scheduled this Sunday. If you have the opportunity to watch one of cycling's "Monuments" over the cobbled climbs of Belgium, I highly recommend it!