>Torque is not stopping power
don't believe i said it was.. If there was so much extra force going through one fork leg during
stopping then the handle bars would twist as you applied the brakes :-
>"The left fork leg is pushed back while the right leg is unaffected."
I'm not denying that this happens but but the force is not suficient to feel in the bars, thus
cannot be sufficient to bend the fork. Pretty simple really. On a thin race fork it may bend - i can
bend one with my arms, but on a heavy duty touring fork it won't.
>>. Suspension forks are very rigid between the mounting point of the disk
brake caliper and the
> axle.
Not always the case, mine's been clamped onto a carbon leg for three years with no trouble at all.
But that's by the by, the pint is that even when not braking a telescopic fork will not track as
well as a rigid one. Thus there must be more 'flex' between the two halfs of each leg than in a
rigid leg. This should then be amplified during braking wioth a disc and cause problems, but it
doesn't because despite there being a force there, it's not big enough to cause problems.
Just out of interest, if I was about to go off and weld up a disc specific fork (from scratch), how
would you instruct me to make it different to a standard touring fork? This was a question i asked a
frame builder who said the same about discs as you - his reason for not fitting discs on a tourer
was "because you can't" and he couldn't answer this question, so I'm interested to know what they do
on these cx disc forks that make them different?
"Tony Raven" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Si Davies <
[email protected]> wrote:
> > There were similar arguments to this when V brakes first emerged and people wanted to put them
> > on road bikes. The torque will be little different to a really good none disk brake - either one
> > will stop the wheel and chuck you over the bars if you hit it hard enough - the advantage a disc
> > gives is that it has very good modulation and works in all weathers and conditions. Remember the
weakest
> > part of a fork is at the crown - therefore it makes little difference if the brake is at the rim
> > or the hub - the pivot point is where the tyre touches the road. And I didn't say 'most rigid
> > forks' i said a steel touring fork - i.e. a strong fork that can take the weight of luggage on a
> > loaded bike and thus should give no problems with a disc. As for having the disc on one side,
> > again i don't see the problem -
causes
> > no problems on telescopic forks which you would think should twist a lot more than rigid ones.
> > By all means have a fork specially built but you will just end up with a strong, over built fork
> > (funnily enough, like what you find on tourers) with a disc mount welded on it!
> >
>
> Is the wrong answer. Torque is not stopping power, it is the twisting
force
> created by the brakes and is very different between rim and disk brakes. Rim brakes produce
> symmetrical torque loading on the fork. Disk brakes provide loading on the one leg holding the
> calipers. Suspension forks are very rigid between the mounting point of the disk brake caliper and
> the axle. Rigid forks, especially touring forks, are designed to have flex in the fork legs to
> provide some suspension. With assymetric loading and the different mounting position of the
> caliper from rim brakes that puts an assymetric bending load on the fork legs they were not
> designed for. The left fork leg is pushed back while the right leg is unaffected.
>
> Tony
>
> --
>
http://www.raven-family.com
>
> "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to
> adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George
> Bernard Shaw