Symox

I hear a slight rattling (I heard it after a recent crash but it stopped for a while) in the fork when I hit one of the legs against my palm or shake it hard (I removed it from the bike). Sounds like something loose in it like a tiny pebble in one of the fork legs (or one of their many stickers they put in their carbon components). I removed the compression nut so the fork is "naked". I'll take the fork to a Specialized dealer to see what they say. Any suggestions if you've dealt with this before? I see no evidence of damage anywhere on the fork even using a coin tapping test.

This bike is a 2007 and I have the original receipt if any of that helps.

The fork is likely fine but I'm not sure I'll be comfortable after the post crash jitters.

79pmooney

I for one wouldn't trust it. I've seen what a breaking fork can do. First-hand. Completely rearranged my life. $300 for a new one is peanuts compared to what mine cost me.

Symox

Please elaborate

merlinextraligh

I don’t know his story, but it doesn’t take much imagination. If a front fork fails, you’re going to faceplant. Depending on the circumstances, the consequences are likely to range from a little road rash on the low end to broken collarbone, fractured pelvis, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, paralysis, and unlikely but possible, death.

While the worst of those are unlikely, very good chance of medical bills exceeding $300.

I don’t mean to be an alarmist, and I currently am riding carbon forks that have been in crashes on 2 different bikes. Nonetheless if had any doubt about a fork’s integrity post crash I would definitely have someone look at it.

msu2001la

The OP already said they were going to take the fork to a Specialized dealer to have them look at it. Recommending that they just trash the fork and buy a new one seems a bit extreme to me.

It's possible that the fork is damaged. It's also possible that the rattling noise has nothing to do with damage, and is something entirely unrelated, and may be a completely simple fix.

Symox

As the accident was completely my fault, I didn't feel right about trying to get a new or discounted fork from Specialized. Since I'm no longer confident in the fork so I ordered a new one, this time with an aluminum steerer (yeah, it has its own issues, but I can live with it). I looked into ordering the exact same one on ebay but it would be the same issue of not having confidence in an unknown (if I buy a used fork, it could have been in a crash)

The original fork offset was 49mm, the new is 45mm. Any idea what to expect with handling? Will it be more stable possibly?


Thanks for the help

79pmooney

If the dropout to head tube distance has not changed, less offset means more trail and more stable steering. 4 mm should be noticeable but not a major change. If the fork blade length has changed, now you've raised or lowered the front of the bike, changing the head tube angle, adding another dimension into the mix (and slightly altering bike fit).

Edit: I haven't addressed your inquiry on my fork failure because I really don't want to revisit it again. I hit numbers one and three on merln's list hard. (Well the collarbone was just a collarbone.)

Symox

I'm really liking the new fork. Bike definitely feels more stable on hill descents - nice bonus!

On a side note, I cut up the old fork. It had a lot of manufacturing bladder junk inside. I think some of that might have gotten loose and caused the rattle.

In any case, I'm very impressed with how strong the fork was. It took me a while to cut it up and banging it with a sledge hammer (yeah, I was curious) had little impact. The strength of quality carbon fiber parts really is something!