MTB tourer & Pace Carbon forks

Cornish Trekker

I have recently converted my 2007 Marin Eldridge Grade as a medium weight touring bike.

I am 76kg and plan to tour with a rear load only of no more than 20kg.
I run a 160mm rotor (BB7) on the front.

I have researched online and read varying opinions. I understand the increased load on the forks under braking is less than ideal but would like other opinions please.

Are these up to it or should i be shelving these in favour of a steel pair? I do have an old pair of Kona P2's in the garage but love my RC-31s to bits.

I know carbon forks are no good for heavy work where front racks are required etc, but this is just road and light trails.

Anyone done it, or any horror stories?

thanks guys

andymiller

Cornish Trekker wrote:

...but would like other opinions please

Here are two:

- it's a good idea;

- it's a bad idea.

Opinions aren't going to leave you any the wiser really.

The trouble is if someone has been riding a disc-based tourer with carbon forks without problems it doesn't mean that you won't have problems - and conversely if they've had problems it doesn't mean you will.

If you are using a bike for a tour you probably need to be a bit more risk averse than you might be if your bike is simply for day-rides close to home. Even more so the further away from home you are planning to go. How much risk you are comfortable with is always going to be a bit subjective.

My advice would be that if you are worried about the robustness of your forks then it's probably better to go for steel - if only for the peace of mind. (And OK, it's a fair cop, I realise that that is an opinion).

Cornish Trekker

agreed, you don't really need to be worrying about fork failure when you are bombing down a mountain and a sheep crosses the road and you hit the brakes hard. extra weight is extra weight and all of it at that moment on the fork with disc brake strain.

P2's are going on!


thank you!