Banzai

Trying to decide on a steel fork for my Ritchey Breakaway. It's come down to the two in the title, and there aren't really many other options out there.

Someone told me that the All City was a lot heavier than the Soma/Tange Infinity fork, but I can't find listed weights. I believe that the All City fork is also Tange infinity, it just has a more decorative crown.

Opinions on either?

TimothyH

At least one in the Single Speed/Fixed Gear forum has the Soma fork. It is very nice, a high end product. Tange Infinity is about as good as it gets.

I have a 3Rensho replica made by Tange, LC21 aero lug, butted tubes, 41 mm rake, 870 grams, 120 mm spacing. It is 27 mm JIS crown race seat and had to be milled down to 26.4 ISO.

https://alexscycle.com/collections/crmo-front-forks

unterhausen

I can't see how a crown would add all that much weight. I would believe they went with thicker tubes

Banzai

Getting a cantilever fork, so not the Wolverine fork.

While I can't find listed weights, unverified Internet posts seem to place both forks at approximately 2 lbs, which makes sense if they are both comparably made Tange infinity forks.

motrheadsroadie

you dont want a steel fork.

Banzai

But I suppose I could "mullet" my bike, and run a disc on the front...

mstateglfr 

There is a fork from Black Mountain too. Gloss black. Pacenti PBP crown(killer!). Available in 50mm or 55mm offset. Can fit up to a 50mm tire. Curved fork blades.
Monster Cross Fork - Black Mountain Cycles


Curious- why change from the stock carbon fork to a cromo?

The Soma forks are really good quality and would be my second pick. Also, Soma isnt QBP, if it matters to you.

Banzai

Well, a while ago I replaced the Ritchey Comp fork with a WCS fork. The WCS fork is feather light, and really pretty, and has a lot of fork chatter. Plus the WCS fork can't run fenders.
The Comp carbon fork is barely lighter than a good steel fork, and its crown is a PITA for fender mounts anyway. Rather than reacquire a Comp fork, figured I'd look at a high end steel fork.

motrheadsroadie

re: disc brake mullet - are you trying to say carbon forks with canti studs are a thing of the past?

Banzai

No. Someone above suggested a couple of disc forks.

motrheadsroadie

which is what you dont want to do.

motrheadsroadie

do you know if those snap on carbon fenders that enve make work for their older generation forks?

Banzai

I don't have active feelings one way or another on doing a "mullet", save for the fact that I have no plans or wants to build new wheels and buy new brakes right now.

There are some clip-on fender options, but they don't cover as well in the mucky times of year as some good PB Cascadias, plus that WCS fork can have some nasty brake chatter.

Banzai

The bike is currently cantilever all around. Doing a mullet would be ADDING a disc.

That's beside the point though, since I'm not going to do it. It only came up because someone above suggested disc brake forks, when I'm looking into cantilever forks. Specifically the two I mentioned in the title.

Of CF options, only the Whisky 7 is really appealing, but it's both hard to find, and expensive.

trailangel

You want Cantilever steel? This Tange Prestige is lighter than Tange Infinity:
https://www.universalcycles.com/shop...4&category=704

ambro

FWIW - I replaced a Ritchey Comp carbon fork on my All City Macho - with the OEM steel fork. it actually improved the ride quality. I love the all city fork - and steel in general - only added about 1lb to the bike weight. I would never go back.

bdooner

I'd like to second the Black Mountain monster cross fork suggestion.
mstateglfr got it right
There is a fork from Black Mountain too. Gloss black. Pacenti PBP crown(killer!). Available in 50mm or 55mm offset. Can fit up to a 50mm tire. Curved fork blades.
Monster Cross Fork - Black Mountain Cycles

shoota 

If you're looking at a steel fork who cares how much it weighs, it's flipping heavy. Get the one that ticks the most boxes.

unterhausen

they are still available, but they are certainly getting to be less common. I assume most companies are working through back stock now, if they have them at all.

I wouldn't fret too much about weight, but given two equal options, I would go for the lighter fork if it was using cantis. For a disc fork, I'm not so sure

csport

I have a Tange Infinity fork which is a part of the Double Cross frameset. Great fork.

Not sure about All City. Surly/Salsa/All City are QBP, and Soma is more or less Merry Sales. AFAIK, their frames (and Black Mountain as well) are made in Taiwan, probably by the same subcontractor (Maxway?). Material wise Surly "natch" and Tange Infinity are more or less Reynolds 520 chromoly. Tange Prestige is made of 753, which is heat treated 520. This allows to make it thinner, lighter and more aggressively butted. All City is at the high end of the QBP spectrum, and some of their frames are made of Reynolds 853, which is slightly stronger than 753. Maybe they have some higher end forks as well.

+1

If you are getting Tange get Prestige over Infinity.

Edit: Nature Boy fork is "Full 4130 High Quality Chromoly" according to All City. Tange Prestige is better than All City fork as well.

mstateglfr 

First ive heard Prestige is rebadged 753. Tange products have always competed against Reynolds, from what ive read.

csport

Both yes and no. The tubing has two characterictics: material and thickness. In terms of alloy both 520 and 725 (actually 725, not 753, sorry for the error in the previous post) are AISI 4130, chrome-molybdenum steel. The difference is that 725 is heat treated. On the other hand, tubing thickness can differ between the manufacturers (Tange/Reynolds/Columbus). Tange Prestige is made of heat treated 4130, which allows one to make it thinner and lighter than Infinity (regular 4130). Probably Reynolds and Columbus made their tubes independently from Tange (assuming they were made in Britain, Italy and Japan) and they competed, but the alloy they used was the same.

There was a thread about different Reynolds steel alloys here, https://www.bikeforums.net/hybrid-bi...lds-steel.html.
Elastic modulus of different steel alloys is more or less the same (tube of the same geometry will bend the same amount under equal stress), but tensile strength is different (tube of the same geometry made from a stronger alloy can be stressed more without breaking).

Some of the All-City bikes use Reynolds 853, which is stronger than Reynolds 725 (heat treated 4130). The All-City Nature Boy fork specs say it is 4130 and say nothing about the heat treatment. That is why I assumed it was similar to Tange Infinity.

mstateglfr 

Oh, i gotcha- you were just saying they are equal in quality and proprties/features.
Thats different from saying Tange Prestige is made of Reynilds 753.

csport

trailangel

Some much wrong here.