freesafety22

can anyone help me with names or info or search terms to find a fork for gravel for a litespeed appalachian? i’m a noob but mechanically inclined and would love some help.
THANKS

nlerner

I’m not familiar with the model: What size steerer? What kind of brakes? What’s wrong with the existing fork?

beech333

I think it was marketed as a cyclocross bike, but it is the same frame as the Blue Ridge(touring). I suspect it does neither well.

That said, I like it. I’ve got a 58, but looking for the next size up. My previous build is my Airborne Carpe Diem, but it is far too stiff for my liking, since I am not a racer.

scarlson 

Looks like early ones came with a threaded fork and later ones with threadless. I wonder if they went to 1-1/8 at the same time, or if it was all 1". If the frame takes a 1" threadless fork, it's almost better to go to threaded because you have more options for stems later on. If it's 1-1/8", sure go with threadless, stems and headsets are plentiful.

Soma makes a bunch of really nice forks for the gravel/touring/cross application. I'd get something with low-rider mounts. You never know when you might want to go touring, and these don't hurt anything!

Here's Soma's fork page.

Looks like they have fewer threaded forks than I remember, and nothing threaded with cantilevers, but still supply 1" threadless, which seems silly of them

SpeedofLite 

What model year of frame? The decals, if original, might help. Upload a photo.

A quick perusal of catalogs shows Litespeed used a 1" Litespeed-designed Kinesis Aluminum fork in1997-99 ; a 1" straight-bladed chromoly fork in 2000; 1 1/8" straight-bladed chromoly(?) in 2001; and a 1 1/8" CF fork in 2002. Cantilever mounts in all years except 2002 (disc).

beech333

I think the buyer could specify threaded vs threadless, but I am not certain of that. Mine came threadless, but I saw one for sale recently that appeared to be the same year and it was threaded, with the same fork.

I converted mine to being threaded with a replacement fork, as I hate the stiffness of threadless stems.

beech333

If you want threadless, I would go with buying something from Soma.

freesafety22

apologies gents. i am not getting updates for some reason and i am a little unfamiliar with the UI in the forum. so it is sort of slow going on my end.

here are some pictures. i think it is 1”. i don’t have it yet actually.

but i do want to get cantilever brakes for the front. and of course to fix the front fork which i am told is not good for this bike.

but i am a noob so i am trying to study up...

freesafety22

thank you SOL. apologies for being slow here i was trying to get a jump on things before i get the bike. i’m pretty good with a wrench but have not done much more than taken things off and cleaned them and put them back on for bicycles. so some of the thread less and threaded and other terms i need to read up on.
here is what i have so far for logos.

freesafety22

photo from the internet. wonder if this fork is OEM.

notenoughdaylig 

If my memory serves me correctly it's a 98 with 1.125 threadless.

SpeedofLite 

Decals are 1998. I'm thinking 1" threadless, but always best to measure.
Page from 1998 Litespeed catalog attached.

freesafety22

hi all. a TON of thanks to everyone in here for the help. special thanks to SpeedofLite and scarlson for getting me sorted about the catalogs and also about soma. i have been trying to cobble it together and i made progress today running the frame around to a bunch of bike shops.
ANYWAY, i ordered the SOMA classic curve cyclo-cross fork as pictured below. it is 1” diameter, threadless, V brake and has lower bosses (that are supposedly are mostly for a fender?). i think this will work for me!
i am including some more images from the catalogs below and i do see (as was stated that the bike (same frame for all years 1999-2000 at least) came with the black KINESIS /aluminum/ fork from 1997-1999 but that they switched to the straight bladed “chromoly straight bladed cyclocross fork” (pictured below 2X).
SO, what i am thinking is to try to put in a search term for this fork so i can try it out at some point since it is chromium and it is straight bladed and it will accept my V brakes. i can’t see trying to find the aluminum OEM fork but i sort of would get a kick out of finding one of these straight bladed chromoly fork.
anyway, if i am asking around do i say i am looking for a “2000 litespeed chromoly straight bladed 1” threadless cyclocross fork”? and then just verify the distance tip to bottom of the steerer tube is some amount OVER my “head tube” dimension which looks like 9.6cm or something?).
like is that a good way to search for and ask for this particular fork?(!)
THANKS a TON
jonathan

freesafety22

images

Dylansbob 

That's a 1 1/8th fork. That Easton model was never offered in 1"

bark_eater 

Soma has a straight cyclocross fork also. https://www.somafab.com/archives/pro...ght-blade-fork

It looks like all of their "cyclocross" forks have the same 44 mm rake.

freesafety22

ah ****. i missed that. i think i like that one better. is it all about the looks basically? meaning these two have the same performance?(!)

bark_eater 

I think the theory is that the curved fork tips would give the fork a gentler ride, but the "Classic" style Soma fork that I have in a box, feels like a mountain bike fork.
I would guess that the straight blade fork is lighter weight and the relative weights of the forks is something that Soma customer service can probably tell ya. It also looks like the straight blade fork has 5mm more leangth from axle to crown, so that slightly affect the bikes head tube and seat angles and might make for a slightly higher trail.

pcb 

Sorry I'm late to the party!

The First Rule for Noobs is "Sheldon Brown Always Has The Answer!" (SBAHTA). Sheldon Brown's website has most everything you'll need to know to understand your bike, and how to figure out what kind of fork to try to find for it. I'd encourage the OP to read up on Sheldon's fork section to get a handle on the dimensional/material issues involved.

Hard to go wrong with a Soma fork, but if it were me I'd want to know what the original fork length/rake-offset was so I'd know if the replacement fork comes close to maintaining the original geometry/handling.

freesafety22

****. first i ordered the curved one and then i ordered the straight one. so now i have the straight one coming in.
what is slightly higher trail again please? and do you have any sense which one i need?
the bike shops in town are not brims do great helping me make a decision snd i can’t seem to
find a way to get through to SOMA. all the bike shops say they need to call them.
thoughts? i don’t think i have any info on the forks other than the two have 4.4mm rake?

freesafety22

THANKS for the help.
no offense please but i stopped reading sheldon brown when he suggested switching my brake levers left to right and i nearly broke my neck in an emergency stop.
i’ve posted specs from litespeed here.
i’ve posted the info i have on the two SOMA forks here.
SOMA won’t pick up the phone from me.
all the forks from litespeed seem to just be listed with 4.4mm rake.
suggestions on moving forward given that?

freesafety22

what’s “axle to crown” please BE?
the straight one is 400mm and the curved one is 389mm.
both have 4.4mm rake.
so what does the higher trail do exactly to the handling...?

freesafety22

so here is my message to litespeed to get more intel:

“guys. i have a 1998 litespeed appalachian frame and need a fork.
i am looking at a curved SOMA chromoly fork (4.4mm rake; 389mm tall) and a straight SOMA chromoly fork (4.4mm rake; 400mm tall).
the other option seems to be “Wound Up” who i have not hear back from.
the APPALACHIAN frame seems to have the following forks:
97-99: 1" Litespeed-designed Kinesis Aluminum
2000: 1" straight-bladed chromoly fork.
2001: 1 1/8" straight-bladed chromoly.
2002: 1 1/8" CF fork in 2002.
can anyone please help me with the HEIGHT of these OEM forks so i can make a decision about handling?(!)
alternatively do you have any recommendations on a fork or fork manufacturer for this bike?
THANK YOU
jonathan”

bark_eater 

So the straight fork is a little longer and will raise the front of the bike 11mm. Thats going to reduce the effective head tube angle a bit, which will give a higher trail. I don't know if it would change the handling enough that you would notice and there's lot of opinions floating around about what trail value works for what. Some folks associate high trail with mountain bikes and lower trail with road bikes. I have a road bike with a trail of 66mm which is pretty high. I run a handlebar bag just fine, but its not much fun to ride hands free.

freesafety22

can i ask you what may be a related question?
it sounds like you are saying lower trail gives better handling in the sense of it being bale or go straight by itself?
i noticed the other day while riding a Trek carbon fiber 5000 TCT that i sort of scored for under 100 dollars.
i realized i thin that while my titanium Javelin bike i can ride for miles hands free trek is a lot twitchier and i can’t ride it hands free at least right now.
can i improve this by lowering the front end basically? or can i compare numbers between the Javelin and the Trek and the Litespeed and start to get it to make sense in my brain.
i mean if i print the specs ans i start to look the three sets of specs over as it relates to how they feel with my hands of the bars?
is the number i want to look at the “trail”?