Lightest steel forks?

[rayms]

There is no forks only in the listings. I realize the forks need to match the frame, but I still want to know.

[2lo8]

Try to get one custom made. There's a lot of older 1" threaded forks that are surpsingly light (600g), but not really applicable to anything modern. I had a decent 1" threadless Lemond steel fork that weighed about 800g if I remember correctly, but many others are quite heavy in excess of 1kg.

You want the Reynolds thin steerer, but Reynolds blades are thicker guage than others. The NOVA generic CrMo blades are pre-butted, and I beleive a little lighter than even Columbus SL blades. The cast plug-in drop outs are a hair lighter than the socket ones. Plate dropouts and the paragon dropouts are heavy. A segmented fork might be just a little lighter than the standard hollow crown fork, but not by that much because the blades are longer, and any reinforcement sleeves and crown races add weight back. Some of the fork crown weights are deceptive because the a sloping crown uses longer blades than a sloping crown.

I think once you add extra matertial for a unicrown, segmented, or capped blades mitered to the steerer, these end up pretty similar in weight compared to a typical brazed fork with the hollow sloping fork crown. Capped blades mitered directly to the steerer look sleek and light, but to get any sort of decent tire clearance, you need a bulged steerer, which is not commerically available, or a sleeve, which starts adding signifigant weight.

[DamonRinard]

There is no forks only in the listings. I realize the forks need to match the frame, but I still want to know.

Hi rayms,

Some vintage fork weights here, including some steel forks:https://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/weights.htm#forks

Also, great info, thanks 2lo8.

Cheers,
Damon

[nachetetm]

I read somewhere this is pretty light, under 600g

http://www.ciclibarco.it/?portfolio=viva-fork

[bm0p700f]

The lightest I have seen is. 1" threaded fork @600g.

[jeffries]

Thanks for the link, nachetetm!

[themidge]

Columbus EL forks are pretty light, somewhere around 600g I think. They (and other old steel forks, obviously) designed to be threaded, but if you find one long enough you could cut it and use it 1" threadless. They look rather 80's, as 80's forks tend to do, so it'll only look good on a thin-tubed frame
I think any frame modern enough to look silly with a 1" steel fork probably needs a modern carbon fork.

[JoO]

FWIW
You might want a framebuilder to build you a fork with this:
https://www.compasscycle.com/shop/compo ... rk-blades/

I am no steel specialist but compass advocate the use of a light flexible steel fork.

[Bigger Gear]

I'm sure a guy like Carl Strong would build someone as light of a steel fork as he felt safe for the application.

I have a Hampsten frame with a lugged crown 1.125" steel fork. I've never weighed it but it's pretty heavy by "feel". Next time I have it out I'll weight it.

[2lo8]

FWIW
You might want a framebuilder to build you a fork with this:
https://www.compasscycle.com/shop/compo ... rk-blades/

I am no steel specialist but compass advocate the use of a light flexible steel fork.

Those blades aren't especially light. More importantly, they use Imperial instead of Continental dimetnions limiting the use of fork crowns (think OS chainstay dimentions instead of fork blade dimentions), meaning you're mostly limited to the wide fork crowns with 50mm clearance. Damon actually did some fork stiffness testing and wrote some on the subject of lateral/longitudal stiffness. Jan's opinions are behind a paywall, but if I remember correctly, he likes them for wide tire/fender clearance (like 42mm wide) and stiffness where brake bosses are attached, relying entirely on the extremely raked thin section's flexibility. The compliance comes from the longer skinny section and raking the fork with a French bend. I'm not saying that comfort is bunk, but you must remember this is the man that advocates 42mm wide tires for comfort for his kind of riding, which involves riding over rumble strips.

Also even if you use a 1" steerer as threadless, you're looking at a 30-60g weight penalty when it comes to shimming or lack of specialy lightweight parts for the standard. Adding the extra steerer needed for a threadless stem on an old threaded steerer adds another ~30g to weight.

[WheelNut]

An 1-1/8" steerer steel road fork with 0.9mm tapered fork blades will probably be 750-900g depending on the axle to crown, dropouts, crown choice, and steerer thickness. I built a rather short (26" wheel road bike) steel 1" threaded fork with Columbus SL fork blades, lightweight lugged crown, and no fender mounts for a friend last year and it came in at 680g with a 3 color paint job. Heavy duty forks like those from Surly come in at around 1100-1300g with powder coating. One of my practice fork builds last year was a CX fork with canti mounts, standard blades, 410mm A-C, 1-1/8" 300mm steerer (I'm tall) and it came in at about 1100g without paint.

If you want to find out how much steel components weigh you can goto www.framebuildersupply.com. They list weights for all their steel parts which will give you a bit of an idea of what is possible. Of course when building a fork there is material removed from each part, brazing material added and then later paint is added as well. None the less it is still helpful for understanding what is available. Columbus SL blades are 60g lighter (per pair) than Columbus Crmor blades before any cutting. SL blades are also MUCH more flexible.

[Onandon]

I know they’re MTB but Kona project 2s went as low as 650g depending on steerer length. I’m surprised there are so few road forks under this weight available.

[Wingnut]

I have a Columbus Genius unicrown (unthreaded) fork on my Olmo Super Light...I’m unsure of the weight but it rides better than any carbon for I’ve used to date...period!


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[rayms]

The lightest I have seen is. 1" threaded fork @600g.

Yes thats about what the Tange Silhouette is. I would like to get ahold of one. Anyone know what the Bulge Butted Stem is? Is the 2.7/1.6 the steel gauge?
Info from Tange 1997 catolog:
Cr-Mo Front Fork SiLHOUETTE
(#188-S) For Racing
Lighter than Aluminum Fork
Uni Crown Type
Cr-Mo Bulge-butted Stem
(25.4x2.7/1.6)
Cr-Mo Butted Blades
(24.0x1.1/0.8/1.0 "D" shaped)
Patent Pending
With Forged Ends (TR 1215,TFR1213 or TF 1210)C.R Finish or Raw Tip End Variation:Round (A) or Diagonal (B)
Weight: 560g



The Rinard N'Aero looks interesting with a bonded aluminum steerer. I quess its not available anymore with so little info on it.

[HillRPete]

I'm planning to get a light-weight 1" fork made. Not sure yet on threaded vs ahead.

It'll be a sort of retro allroad bike based on an older Columbus Cromor frame -- with cantis. Do you think light tubing would be ok, or prone to stuttering with cantis?

(Also pondered long reach centre pulls, but cantis are lighter )