deacon mark

I know this has been posted before but my concern is only about the quality of the ride. Does a full carbon fork with carbon steerer ride better than a carbon fork with aluminum steerer? The price difference is huge and I am fan of Ritchey forks but the ritchey fork with aluminum steerer is much less money. My guess is someone could tell the difference. I am not worried about the weight being more just the ride quality.

tempocyclist

That would be my guess too.

Personally though? I very much doubt I could tell the difference in ride quality between two otherwise-identical forks.

datlas 

I expect minimal difference in performance or feel, but crabon fiber is much lighter. So if you don’t care about the weight, get the aluminum one.

Maelochs

The fork blades are what affect the ride. The steerer tube (if it is constructed/bonded well) is just a mechanical link and load bearer.

deacon mark

I actually phased that wrong. My guess is that there would not no difference in the ride quality at all. I had a CF bike 12 years ago with AL steerer and it road find. This is for a build I am going for a second bike to ride so not worried about weight and the frame is slightly smaller than my other equivalent frame so I am saving weight on that part.

tFUnK

My two smoothest riding bikes happen to have carbon steerers, but they also have carbon handlebars. My harshest riding bike has a steel steerer. My bikes with aluminum steerers ride ok but they are also on aluminum handlebars. I have one bike with carbon steerer and aluminum handlebars, and it rides similar to my other bikes with aluminum bars.

Long way of saying: I don't think there will be a perceptible difference in ride quality.

freeranger

I agree. If you think about it, the steerer is inside the head tube, and the head tube had better be very solid, or you have a problem!! So, other than weight, can't see the steerer making a difference.

merlinextraligh

FWIW, My Merlin came from the factory with an aluminum steerer tube, and a conventional headset. To save weight and get a more aerodynamic fork, I changed to a fork with a CF steerer. I could not perceive any difference in ride quality.

Changing from a threaded headset to thread less would be a confounder, but based on my experience, I would surmise the material of the steerer tube makes next to no difference in ride quality.

Eric F 

I would be very surprised if anyone could actually tell the difference in ride feel in a blind A-B test with everything else the same.

Kontact 

NO ONE makes an identical fork with either an aluminum or carbon steerer. So this is a fairly pointless discussion, unless you are starting a fork company.

Personally, I do not see the point in an aluminum steerer, since it implies having an internal metal crown as well. If you want steerer strength, stick with steel. If you want a lightweight carbon fork, get an all carbon fork.

If I was willing to try something different, it would be a Ti fork.

ummed

Probably not a 3rd party vendor, but some bicycle manufactures may make the "same" fork with different steerers for different levels within a product line. I'm not going to go look, but I would not be surprised at all.

Kontact 

All carbon forks aren't made in the same way as metal and carbon forks.

urbanknight

I certainly can't feel the difference. Maybe someone can.

Maelochs

An aluminum steerer won't assplode .... but it has a limited fatigue life, so it will get you anyway. There is no escape.

Trakhak

So what is your question?

(Your first two sentences in your opening post: "I know this has been posted before but my concern is only about the quality of the ride. Does a full carbon fork with carbon steerer ride better than a carbon fork with aluminum steerer?")

Lombard

fify

Does one even exist? I think most Ti bikes come with a carbon fork.

Kontact 

Yes.
Google. Bing. Yahoo.

ummed

That's interesting, I wouldn't expect those companies to make forks.

79pmooney

@Lombard, explain to me how my Mooney went from being scary on downhill descents with its rigid fork to being a ride I fully trust and love just replacing the original fork with a fork of exact same geometry and tubing, just cut at the skinny end, not the fat end. No change in tires, wheels or anything else. (300 gm training level sewups that I rode for a decade or more.)

I keep reading how tires do everything and frame, fork and rim vertical stiffness doesn't make any difference. I keep hearing my 40 years of riding experience is wrong. (And I see people riding with a level of what I call "squish" (big soft tires) to make their bikes comfortable enough to ride.) Pulled my Mooney out today and put 88 psi (average) into my 28c tires and enjoyed the Cadillac ride on that fork, shallow GP4 rims and nice firm tires.

Lombard

Granted that frame geometry can affect handling or what you feel as scary vs. trustworthy. But compliance is mainly from tires.

Trakhak

A stiffer fork would likely result in an increase in torsional rigidity. My favorite bike for descents (for everything, really) has an aluminum frame with large-diameter frame tubes and a straight aluminum fork with large-diameter blades. There's less lateral flex than my steel bikes with steel forks, so the rear wheel tracks the front wheel better. Very confidence-inspiring.

[Edited to add: that bike is a Specialized Langster fixed-gear bike, bought the first year it was on the market. A bit of a lemon, likely because it was rushed into production to hit the shops for the upcoming season to get on the bandwagon for the new fixie fad. Among other problems, the wheels, built with cheap black spokes, were absurdly undertensioned from the factory. After I'd broken several spokes in each, i gave up and rebuilt them with decent stainless spokes. Vertical compliance was the same, before and after.]

On the other hand, for a given racing frame geometry and wheelbase, while I can always feel significant differences in torsional rigidity, all my frames and forks (steel, aluminum, and carbon) and wheels have always felt about the same in vertical compliance. At least, whatever the differences might be, they've always been insignificant to me compared to the differences in torsional stiffness.

About rim stiffness in the vertical plane: Sheldon Brown's site includes a page that reports the results of tests where various aspects of conventional and aerodynamic wheels were measured.

Note John Allen's interpolations (bolded), where he points out that even highly inflated tires are upwards of 10 times more absorptive of vertical forces than any rim (quoting from below: There may be a difference in the feel of the wheel, but it is not due to differing radial stiffness -- John Allen).

Excerpted from that page:

Aero wheels are not supposed to be comfortable, right? The deep rim makes them too stiff radially, right? Wrong. The softest wheels in the test were the Specialized and Cane Creek, at 8,400 lb/in and 8,800 lb/in, respectively. Then came the Shamal, at 12,600 lb/in. The Cosmic and the 32 spokes followed at 13,500 lb/in.

Thirty-six 14 gauge spokes sure make a wheel stiff, and so does a very deep carbon fiber rim as on the Zipp. These two tied for the rough-ride championship, at 20,200 lb/in.

[Again: the radial stiffness of a bicycle tire inflated to 100 PSI is on the order of 1000 lb/in -- John Allen]

There is no doubt that the difference in ride quality between a 20,000 lb/in wheel and a 13000 lb/in one is immediately apparent to a 70 kg rider. Lighter guys should avoid stiff wheels

[There may be a difference in the feel of the wheel, but it is not due to differing radial stiffness -- John Allen]

Kontact 

Nope. Bikes with 25c or smaller tire makes it easy to tell how compliant the fork is.

Lombard

That may be one of the reasons why the minimum tire width I ever ride anymore is 28mm.

alxsmlv

More stiffness?

Lombard

If you feel more lateral stiffness, it's probably due to a tapered vs. not tapered steerer rather than any difference in steerer material.