Fork Identification

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funk2monk

Senior Member
Location
Suffolk
just removed front wheel from my Ellis Briggs to mend a puncture and noticed these marks on the inside of each fork leg.
Never noticed before as rarely remove front wheel. Only other marking is Reynolds 531.
Any help greatly appreciated.
 

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Last edited:

midlife

Guru
They were trendy in the 70's. Decoration only lol. Still available from places like Ceeway ready cut but can come attached to the crown as cast. My Falcon has them but round holes only.

https://www.framebuilding.com/NEWPARTSPAGES/Cast Fork Crowns.htm


Dscn6768.jpg
 
Last edited:
Location
Loch side.
They were trendy in the 70's. Decoration only lol. Still available from places like Ceeway ready cut but can come attached to the crown as cast. My Falcon has them but round holes only.

https://www.framebuilding.com/NEWPARTSPAGES/Cast Fork Crowns.htm


View attachment 471885

They may look decorative but are far from. They actually serve a very important purpose. Those long fingers serve to "feather" the transition between thin fork blade and rigid crown. Had they not been there, the joint creates a stress riser and eventually the fork cracks there.

Anything with long fingers, even if they are not part of the crown like in your photo, is good. Anything like this:

Cast%20F8.gif


is positively stupid. This is a Cinelli invention IIRC and the sharp transition caused forks to crack at the bottom of this lug. Cinelli marketed this as a "unicrown" or something - I can't remember now, but they are deadly. I had a Pinarello with such a fork and that cracked exactly along the bottom circumference of each fork blade insert i.e. at the bottom of the lug as seen in the picture above.

The way to think of it is to think of a fishing rod - standard tapering rod. Now think of a stepped rod. Where will it break? The analogy is not pure though, because forks will crack in fatigue whereas the rod will break in flexion.
 

midlife

Guru
Raleigh / Carlton for example turned out tens of thousands of forks without the "tangs" on the inside. Not sure I recall a whole lot failing.
 
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