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!