Using a 27.5er MTB carbon fork on gravel bike?
05-14-21, 10:28 AM
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Using a 27.5er MTB carbon fork on gravel bike?
Someone is offering me a new full carbon MTB fork with a 45mm offset for a very good price. I was thinking of mounting it to my 700c gravel bike. I've compared the two and there's about a 40mm difference between the carbon fork and my current steel fork from crown to steerer tube. The 45 offset seems to match fairly close to my stock fork. The only difference is that the carbon fork will be slightly taller by a few cm (around 1.5+ in), but I was thinking it would allow me to run a front fender without any issues (my current setup has clearance issues). Would running this fork drastically alter my handling? Should I just pass on the deal? Thanks!
05-30-21, 06:05 PM
#2
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In some cases the slower/more stable handling will hurt, but in many cases for a gravel bike it will help. My hardtail mtb frames actually benefitted most from a full on suspension fork add on. Even though they weren't shipped with suspension in the early 90s it was like they were made for it.
09-29-21, 08:32 PM
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It depends on how high you like your bars. If your bars are currently about as low as you can get them a higher fork will drive you bonkers because it will raise your bars too high. If your bars are currently high you'd have plenty of room to lower them on a taller fork by flipping or using a lower angle stem. It's sort of nice to have extra BB clearance off road, but if your bars are even slightly too high your bike will be squirrelly on climbs, the front wheel will wander because you won't have adequate weight on the front tire. If you can get a little extra BB/pedal height clearance while also keeping your bars low enough for climbs then it might be a good thing. It isn't very complicated or worthy of hand wringing. It won't even change the BB height very much, maybe only a fraction of a centimeter. The handling characteristics of the bike depend on fore/aft balance and if you have the space to change that and aren't on either extreme of having a too large or too small frame you can tweak it to your liking without difficulty.
Last edited by Clem von Jones; 10-03-21 at 05:43 PM.
10-02-21, 08:18 PM
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If the fork is longer from the drop outs to crown (atc) , it won't work very well on your bike. I wouldn't suggest it.
10-09-21, 07:24 PM
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A friend of mine tried a setup like that in his bike a trek cyclocross bike, it didn't last even a week before he changed back and sold the fork on a gravel conversion attempt. I think it may come down to geometry. I'm pretty new to cycling so I'm speaking out of my ass pretty much, but I image more mtb oriented gravel bikes might have a better change of working than in something like road or CX bike.
10-09-21, 07:44 PM
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A friend of mine tried a setup like that in his bike a trek cyclocross bike, it didn't last even a week before he changed back and sold the fork on a gravel conversion attempt. I think it may come down to geometry. I'm pretty new to cycling so I'm speaking out of my ass pretty much, but I image more mtb oriented gravel bikes might have a better change of working than in something like road or CX bike.
