Originally Posted by
Moisture
Can absolutely agree with you on trail being very subjective.... not to contradict what i just said, as this helps to put handling metrics into perspective... but wouldn't a trail of around 65mm seem normal for a gravel bike as well? I see plenty of gravel bikes with a very similar angles to the trek fx - 72.5° head angle and roughly 45mm of fork offset.
I think gravel bikes generally have a slacker head tube angle than traditional road bikes and a bit more trail.
I think this is a pretty good video on the topic.
Originally Posted by
Moisture
Do you think that changing out to a chromoly or carbon fork with about 50mm of offset would be a worthwhile decision? My current fork is aluminum, nothing wrong with it.. just thinking I might prefer something better with road buzz. I've heard stories of carbon forks cracking though.
That's tough to say. I'd probably like it myself. I usually like steel stuff, and recently swapped a cheap Suntour 80mm suspension fork on my entry level hardtail for a Surly chromoly fork (ECR 27.5+ model). The axle-to-crown measurement was shorter, but it has the same offset...so it increased the head tube angle and decreased the trail. I think the bike rides better this way...no-handed riding is much easier and the bike feels more natural in general. But again, I'm not into the slack geometry popular today and prefer more "traditional" bike geometry. So I'd probably like your proposed change.