Slightly too little fork rake ok?

[davidd86]

Guys, question: is the sky going to fall if I use my old Kestrel EMS fork, which has 43mm of rake, in a used Giant TCR frame that supposedly wants 45mm of rake? Is 2mm a material difference? I'm thinking the resultant tiny bit more trail would not be a terrible thing, as the Giant compacts are said to be just the tiniest bit skittish on descents, etc. I'd hate to ruin the bike's sharp handling but I'm hoping this just ain't gonna matter. Thanks for any advice.

 

[boudreaux]

Guys, question: is the sky going to fall if I use my old Kestrel EMS fork, which has 43mm of rake, in a used Giant TCR frame that supposedly wants 45mm of rake? Is 2mm a material difference? I'm thinking the resultant tiny bit more trail would not be a terrible thing, as the Giant compacts are said to be just the tiniest bit skittish on descents, etc. I'd hate to ruin the bike's sharp handling but I'm hoping this just ain't gonna matter. Thanks for any advice.

It generally does not make enough differenct to notice. But,the old ketrel fork had a significantly longer crown to dropout distance compared to most others. Since you got it it won't cost anything to try it,but it's not anything I would have spent money on.

 

[davidd86]

Thanks. Yeah, I already have it so not only will I try it but I imagine once it's installed it's unlikely that I'll take it off because doing so is such a pain in the neck with a threaded fork. To your point, I looked up http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/forklengths.htm
and you're right that the Kestrel is just a tad longer than most. Rinard seems to say that at worst this slackens your head angle by about a third of a degree. So I guess the combination of that plus a little less rake than spec will just increase the trail and make the bike a little slower-steering. Which is perfectly OK; the only time i have ever cared much about bike handling is on descents anyways. Many thanks.

It generally does not make enough differenct to notice. But,the old ketrel fork had a significantly longer crown to dropout distance compared to most others. Since you got it it won't cost anything to try it,but it's not anything I would have spent money on.

 

[531Aussie]

my experience with changing forks around is that a rake change under 5mm has probably the least impact on handling compared to other parameters such as blade design (shape, length and other stuff I'm probably unaware of ), and blade & steerer material.

Having said that, if you changed the rake by 5mm or more, it could be a different story.

to answer your question, I'd say that the differences you'll most likely notice with the new fork won't be due to the 2mm rake change, but other factors

 

[gclark8]

Going a bit off topic here, changing suspension forks in a MTB to use on the road, rigid forks. I did this with a Merida Kalahari and increased the steerer angle from 69 to 73 degrees (unladen). This made a nice precice handling road bike with Conti slicks.

I am about to repeat the exercise with an Apollo Marathon (or 06 Malvern Star Mirage) 18" MTB with a shorter top tube. By using rigid CrMo forks it should produce a 3-4 degree change also.