Tapered head tube with 1 1/8 fork.

denis's mate

Where does most of the stiffness increase come from when using tapered head tube and fork? I understood it was mainly from the frame. A mate says it's the fork that provides most of the increase in stiffness. My understanding is that a 1 1/8" fork with a tapered head tube, whilst not the ideal, will show much improvement over a 1 /18" head tubed frame.

nicklouse

the answer to your very unclear question is both. and your mate if he said that is not thinking.


bigger tubes on the frame make it stiffer. bigger tubes on the steerer make that stiffer.

denis's mate

nicklouse wrote:

the answer to your very unclear question is both. and your mate if he said that is not thinking.


bigger tubes on the frame make it stiffer. bigger tubes on the steerer make that stiffer.

Unclear in what way?

denis's mate

Just Googled this and I guess this the way I should have put it:-

"Many fork manufacturers are now producing high end forks in a tapered version, sometimes *only* in a tapered version. There is only one real benefit to having a tapered fork and by extension a larger diameter head-tube. It allows you to join larger gauge tubes to it. Using larger diameter top and down-tubes and not needing much/any manipulation to join them to the head-tube, and not having them interfere with one another, makes for a potentially stiffer front end, rather than anything to do with an increase in stiffness of the fork steerer and crown."

The Rookie

Larger diameter doesn't make it stiffer, it makes it lighter for the same stiffness, it's a complex set of combinations to which there is no one answer, and the answer depends on the bike, do you want it lighter, stiffer or a bit of both......