Originally Posted by
leftthread
Right, I saw that thread! I wish I could still vote in the poll.
Originally Posted by
John E
Thank you for this cautionary thread. It does not affect me directly, because none of my forks are from that vintage, but it is always helpful to learn about common failure points in various frames and forks. That looks damn scary to me.
My own record over about 200k km of cycling is three broken frames, two broken (and one cracked) cranks, a broken pedal cage, a broken front hub flange, a few spokes and cables, but fortunately no broken chains, forks, stems, or handlebars.
I've broken a first-gen Phil BB axle, a Campy rear hub flange, two MA3 rims, 10-15 spokes, three Blackburn racks, two frames (one Trek fastback seatstay and one Holdsworthy Claud Butler lower head lug), and this fork. I remain uninjured, which I guess is surprising. I think the VO front minirack, mounted on my brazed-on canti posts, slowed the failure and helped stabilize things when the failure occurred. The bike had been handling rather "lyrically" as my failed Holdsworth/Claud did, I would say, in the 200 miles or so leading up to the failure, in addition to the brake judder. I thought I was just out of shape or slightly delirious from either heat, cold, beer, coffee, mass hole drivers, or bad PhD advisorship. Victim blaming oneself is the Harvard way...
Originally Posted by
madpogue
Interesting. Do you remember offhand if your RD cable stop is on the top ('82-style) or bottom ('83-style) of the chainstay? Asking because I have a 412 with an '82 serial number and '83-style RD cable stop. Fork DOES have extended tangs on the inside of the crown, so it's NOT a death fork. The 022 decal says "double butted tubes forks & stays", but I'm pretty sure I recall seeing Tange on the steerer tube when I had it apart. I wonder if the non-death forks were constructed of a Tange steerer and crown, with 022 blades.
Cable guide is on the top. I'm sorry, I said it was an '83 in my earlier post. I've corrected that mistake. It's an '82 613 or 614 through and through, right down to the serial number. I forget if it says anything on my steerer, but I can update this thread when I take the bike apart. On the bright side, it's all "rinko" capable, so I can easily pull the fork. Right now it's just sitting there forlornly while I ride my Ron Cooper or Vitus, I guess!