Deda Black rain forks

Aguila

Hi all,

I'm thinking about upgrading my dawes audax bike that I commute on by getting some carbon forks to replace the current chromoloy ones.

These look quite good and I know condor use them on their audax bikes. Any views on the merits of carbon forks for this sort of bike and experience of these in particular would be great!

itboffin

Aguila wrote:

Hi all,

I'm thinking about upgrading my dawes audax bike that I commute on by getting some carbon forks to replace the current chromoloy ones.

These look quite good and I know condor use them on their audax bikes. Any views on the merits of carbon forks for this sort of bike and experience of these in particular would be great!

Do it, do it

After lugging my Mercian tourer up yet another hill this morning I couldn't help be think now what if I replaced the forks with carbon along with just about every other part of that bike, it weighs a ton.

I doubt carbon is going to be a comfortable as good quality steel but hey it looks v cool and that surely is half the battle.

Chris James

Aguila wrote:

Hi all,

I'm thinking about upgrading my dawes audax bike that I commute on by getting some carbon forks to replace the current chromoloy ones.

These look quite good and I know condor use them on their audax bikes. Any views on the merits of carbon forks for this sort of bike and experience of these in particular would be great!

I'll be interested to see if you get much of a response to this. I recall similar questions on here before meeting a wall of silence!

Presumably not many people fit after market forks to a steel frame? Looking at the forks you mentioned, I would have thought they would be fine and give the bike a more modern look. I know they are for an integrated headset (but aren't they all?) and my understanding is that this is only a cosmetic issue anyway. I presume they are for 'long drop' brakes?

All titanium and steel frames with carbon forks that I have seen appeared to have integrated forks fitted to them.

I also have a Dawes Audax and have toyed with swapping the forks over as they stock ones seem quite hefty (touring forks?). However I am quite happy with the ride they give and am tight fisted so have never bothered to chnage them.

If the Audax is just used for commuting I am not sure it is worth the money and effort to change them, to be honest. The steel may cope with potholes and abuse better too?

Aguila

Thanks for the replies, I'm in 2 minds now!

I must say I've not been that impressed with the current forks, despite the fact they are reynolds 653. They are quite bulky, they have mountings for front racks/panniers which I will never use. I had hoped that carbon forks might make it a bit more nimble whilst keeping comfort.

I think the black rain forks do have clearance for deep drop brakes plus obviously mudguards.

I'm going to have the bike full serviced soon so would be a good oportunity to fit them. My bike takes quite a beating with all year round use 22 miles a day. I've already needed a new headset and bottom bracket in its first 18 months!!

always_tyred

Might be worth having a chat with a wizened old lbs owner about this. In terms of strength, etc, carbon no problemo. And if you have a non-integrated headset (all the best people do) then you should get a fork for such a headset. Most manufacturers offer equivalents.

However, they vary quite a lot in flex (and rake, but so do any forks). My rudimentary understanding is that you need something to roughly match your frame.

I have a stiff alu road frame which used to have a Vitus fork. I think "vitus" is latin for "noodle" and they seem since to have gone out of business. The bike was transformed by a nice stiff ITM fork.

However, as I understand it, it would not be good to have a stiff fork like that on a compliant frame either.

Chris James

Aguila wrote:

Thanks for the replies, I'm in 2 minds now!

I must say I've not been that impressed with the current forks, despite the fact they are reynolds 653. They are quite bulky, they have mountings for front racks/panniers which I will never use. I had hoped that carbon forks might make it a bit more nimble whilst keeping comfort.

Are you sure about the 653 bit? Mine are just Cr-Mo and a bit agricultural. My audax (2006) has 631 butted main tubes but everything else is no-name Cr-Mo to my knowledge.

Yours sound like mine, with low rider mounts and a dynamo mount that will never be used on a bike whose rear end only really takes 25mm tyres with guards fitted. The fork seems a bit beefy for the bike really, hence the heft. But as I said, I personally like the ride it gives, probably nicer than my old 531c with 531 forks.

As I said, let us know what you decide. You have piqued my interest!