Originally Posted by
TenGrainBread
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.
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.
Fair enough -- I'm just glad Crust is even making such a thing. The fun part is that you can probably find a suitable used bike for as much or less than the fork itself.
And FWIW, I built a custom frame not too long ago that would fit one of these forks perfectly -- 1-1/8 steerer, non-suspension-corrected geometry.
Still it wouldn't be too difficult to do a run of 1" steerer forks, with all other aspects exactly the same.
Dang, you got some cool vintage bikes.