Originally Posted by
mconlonx
Cool conversion and I really dig the Crust fork but only one complaint, the steerer diameter and/or axle-to-crown measurement.
A lot of old mountain bikes with the correct 400mm atc measurement had 1" steerers. 1-1/8" steerer really only got popular when suspension came into play, but then the atc measurement grew to 450m or more, to account for suspension.
Worth looking for an older bike with the correct specs so that this will work optimally, but for a spare, older bike one might have kicking around, maybe not a perfect solution.
Considering how unique and useful this is, though, many (like me) might be certainly willing to deal with resultant handling issues from mounting this to a mtn bike with suspension adjusted frame.
I think you're overstating this a bit. There was a period from 1989-1995 when rigid mountain bikes with the ~400mm forks were still extremely common and the majority of them had 1 1/8 head tubes. Take a look through the old Trek, Specialized, Giant, Gary Fisher catalogs and you will see this. During this point in time mostly the top end models had suspension forks and suspension-corrected rigid forks weren't really a big thing yet. The geometry on rigid bikes was simply different than the suspension models.
I think Crust made the right choice with the steerer diameter and length here given the prevalence of these bikes in local used markets over earlier mtbs and ones with 1" steerers.
In my case I found the Giant on Craigslist for $80. I did have a 1993 Trek 930 that would work but I had already done a touring conversion on that guy.
