renyay

Hi There,
I'm in the market for a 1" threadless steel cross fork for my Voodoo Wazoo. There are not a ton of options out there, I'm basically deciding between the Surly cross check fork and a Tange Prestige cross fork I see on the Merry Sales website. The prestige fork is double the price (at cost, I work at a shop), but they don't list a weight for it. I've looked all over the web and can't find weights listed for similar forks either.
Does anyone own this fork/have any idea what it weighs? The Surly fork is 966 grams - a little over 2 pounds. Any opinions as to weather the Prestige fork would be more worth buying?
Thanks!

FBinNY 

You work in a shop and have access to dealer pricing. Why don't you pick up the phone and call Merry (they're in California and still open now) and get the specs for the Prestige fork they sell? Tell you you're shopping for one of the store's customers and trying to justify the price difference between their fork and the one from QBP.

fietsbob

Surly has I'd guess let the TW vendor that makes the fork for them, QBP, use what blade they can get , so the specifics likely vary .

Tange prestige is a specific Tange fork blade ..

HillRider

Current Cross Checks use 1-1/8" steerers. Are you sure the one you are considering is 1"?

Edit: having typed that I checked the Surly web site and, sure enough, there is a 1" Cross Check fork available. The fork on my Cross check was 1-1/8' but otherwise had no problems.

renyay

It never continues to amaze me how condescending people on this forum are. I have already contacted Merry Sales. They don't know the weight.

renyay

Right.

Anyway, if anyone actually has one of these Tange Prestige forks and can tell me what it weighs, even roughly, I'd appreciate it.

FBinNY 

I didn't mean to be condescending, and am somewhat surprised that the folks at Merry don't know their product better. They're not Trek, and as a smaller player, should be making their bones on things like service and product knowledge.

BTW- "I don't know" isn't a reasonable answer from whoever you spoke to at Merry. I understand that he might not know, but the fork is there, and they have a scale. So if he has any commitment to customer service he'd get the fork, put it on the scale, and call you back with the answer.

The fork might also have packaging which might answer your other questions.

FYI, I searched the fork, went to the site of an internet seller, where they listed a bunch of specs, not including the weight. But they had a question link, and I asked. Their answer, returned in less than 10 minutes, was

"From all the information I can find about 2.2 lbs"

Of course, I didn't know your exact fork (this was for the canti version, prestige Cx), but it's a start.

daveed

Brilliant, FBinNY! Now that's service.

HillRider

Which makes it the same weight as the Surly. So, is it really worth double?

FBinNY 

Weight is a crude way to judge forks. For example, a better fork might use taper gauge blades to increase flex at the tips for better handling, yet also have a slightly more reinforced steerer and end up weighting more.

What's disappointing about this thread is that the seller makes no effort to explain how or why his product is better.

HillRider

Yes, but Surly's forks have a good reputation and are well proven in use so there is no reason to assume they are poorly made or configured. I agree that the Tange fork's seller is not much help.

renyay

Thanks, that's super helpful. I agree it's silly that Merry Sales doesn't know its products better. I've owned 4 of their frames and spent hundreds of dollars on their products, but I feel that their sales reps are still kind of rude and uninformed. And I agree, they should have a scale and just weigh it... simple customer service, and good for them if it makes a sale right? But it seems like they don't care. Makes me second guess buying a whole lot more from them.
However, the fact that weight wasn't listed on any of the Tange forks I found online made it seem a little more excusable. I appreciate you asking someone else and getting an actual spec. It's good to know; it's just as heavy as the Cross Check fork, so I'll be going with that. Those are nice forks, just weighty, like all Surly stuff I suppose.

renyay

Glad I found this old Voodoo to build up, because plan b was a Double Cross. Nice bikes, but like I said, getting kinda tired of dealing with Merry.

well biked

I don't know, "from all the information I can find about 2.2 lbs" doesn't sound like an "actual spec" to me. I get sick of folks quoting this weight and that weight without actually weighing whatever it is they're talking about. I can see why you'd be frustrated with wanting to find the weight of something and not getting the info, but the truth is, if someone is selling something and someone asks the weight of it, there's a very good way to provide that info: take the item, put it on a scale, and weigh it. It seems that no one, including whoever provided the "from all the information I can find about 2.2 lbs" answer to FBinNY, has actually done that. Honestly, that seems rather heavy for a rather pricey, nice steel, CX fork.....but hey, there's only one way to know for sure.

reddog3

Not really- First, it's a $89 fork at retail, so not "pricey" 2.2 lbs is a kilo (1000g). Heavy for a fork? Maybe, but not an $89 steel fork. The lightest all steel fork that I'm comfortable in building is around 600g in that size. Ain't gonna happen for $89. I'd never buy a 1000g fork (suspension excepted) but for that price, it is what it is, and not all bad.

well biked

I think you've got the retail prices of the Surly fork and the Tange Prestige fork mixed up.

reddog3

That's possible since you didn't mention which brand fork you're calling "pricey." Here's the local prices I find- $89 Surly, $160 Tange.

woodcraft

It surprises me how often people come here, get useful responses to their questions,

and complain about it.

well biked

Wow. Just read the whole post you quoted me from. If you didn't understand that I was referring to the Tange fork, well, whatever.

reddog3

I re-read it as well. Didn't see the word Tange mentioned once. How was I to know? I ain't gonna spend enough time trying to figure out what you're saying and how they relate to previous posts unless you are more specific- brand names etc. I actually thought I was apologetic admitting "that's possible" that I did mix them up, based on the info provided. Sorry, and sorry you didn't get it. Let me re-phrase it- neither fork is "pricey."

Kimmo

Damn straight; IMO it's unforgivable that a bike parts retailer can't list the weight of items... maybe not down to the level of brake pads, but at least to brake calipers. Not knowing how much a fork weighs is beyond the pale.

It's as if people who don't give a s**t about bikes are in the business, which never would have made much sense, but now the rich are eating the middle class, maybe we're losing the nice flipside of crap pay.