loco-motive said:
I have a 74 Raleigh Pro, and want to upgrade the fork, which I'd guess has something like a 55 rake, and I've never liked the ride. There are 2 questions; #1) can I go to a 43mm or 45mm rake without getting dangerous? #2) Besides the obvious 1" quill style replacement fork, can I somehow make a 1in THREADLESS fit, or someone told me with the right headset I could even use a 1 and 1 eigth? Are there other options I did not mention? Thank you.
Are you sure it's a 55mm rake?
My 1988 Raleigh was dramatically improved by putting on a 45mm rake carbon fork with broad blades and an aluminium steerer. Any new fork you get will feel dramatically different, regardless of rake, because it'll be a totally different design to your old steel fork.
The one's I got are a stiffish fork which are much more stable than the old flexy steel fork I had, and generally handles better over all. But being a little stiff, it might not be everyone's cup of tea. It's a cheap Roselli. I liked it so much I've bought 2 of them.
http://www.hillbrick.com.au/index.p...6b6772d3bd3b9ea2&option=com_phpshop&Itemid=53
Sorry about the **** photo
Apart from that, there are plenty of other options, so Google away.
Full-carbon 1" forks have become very expensive, so maybe go alu, which also tend to be stiffer because of the aluminium crowm
ITM brought out a new line recently -- I think it's called a Visia
You can't put a 1"1/8 fork in a "one inch" head-tube. Trust me, I once rammed one in there to show someone that it wouldn't work
If you wanna keep your current stem and head-set, you should be able to get another threaded fork, but most likely 2nd hand. There are plenty of older carbon forks aroound with threaded, steel steerers.
Getting the whole threadless setup is pretty cool. You'll need a stem and head-set, and maybe bars if you can't get a stem to match the diameter of you current bars. Old Cinelli bars are 26.4mm, and won't fit the newer 26mm stems, and obviously won't fit the even newer 31.8mm diameter.
If you get new bars and stem, 31.8mm is a better option, mainly because a lot of the 26mm stuff is becoming harder to get.
