sthurman

Hi! I bought a Mondonico frame without a fork and I am looking for a chrome original fork if anybody has one. Frame is 56cm.
I built it up with a random steel fork and it still has the best ride Ive ever experienced on a bike. I'd like to invest in a matching fork as this will be a keeper bike for me.
I currently built it to comply with Eroica rules so my friend could ride it at Eroica CA.

jdawginsc 

I am guessing that will be tough to find as the frames are pretty rare and if a fork is for sale, you have to wonder what happened to the frame...?

unworthy1

^true^ the only hope is somebody who thought a CF fork would be the bee's knees, has decided to "get rid of that old piece of steel junk"!
If you can determine the correct rake of your original, and are a bit flexible, you may be able to find something in chrome with same or similar fork crown from another Italian builder, otherwise an exact match with correct steerer size will be needle in a haystack rare.
But one brand that might come close and expand your search grounds is Torelli, has been said that Mondonico build a number of those frames (but not all).

smd4

A fully chrome fork on that bike will look sharp for sure.

clubman 

It happens. I bought a parts box and found a nice Guerciotti fork, in the CF fork packaging that replaced it.
Bike shops swapped out nice steel forks all the time over the last couple of decades. Not unlike stock Civics with loud exhausts.

sthurman

I recall a thread saying that 15 years ago or so a bunch of mondonico forks landed on ebay. I'm hoping somebody back then bought one they didn't need and still has it available

P!N20

Hi sthurman , check out Cicli il Massimo: https://www.cicli-il-massimo.com/

In summary, when Antonio Mondonico shut up shop, his son Mauro started il Massimo.

An il Massimo fork on your Mondonico would not be out of place at all.

Edit: also here: https://www.smartcycles.com/ilmassimo

Road Fan

I have a very similar Mondonico with the original fork. I’m not interested in selling its fork, but I can check the rake and length on mine. Do you know what steer tube length you need?

sthurman

Sorry for belated responses, I went to eroica CA and turned it into a week-long family vacation in wine country. So the head tube length is 146mm and stack height for campy headset is about 38 iirc, so I think I need a steerer tube at least 184mm. I decided to borrow a Moser chrome fork from another frame of mine until (if I ever) I find a proper Mondonico fork. I'll keep looking on ebay. I would find your measurements of a matching mondonico fork helpful though 😀

unworthy1

Bet the Moser fork, if from the same era as your Mondonico frame) would be "pretty close".

thinktubes 

True - I bought on BITD. Mine was raw steel, no paint or chrome. Bill McGann was selling them. I think I ended up selling it to @afilado here on the forum back in 2012.

sthurman

You're right, it does look great! I just finished the new build and don't mind keeping it this way. It rides amazing, so much so that I chose to keep this over my Eddy Merckx Titanium AX. Here's a photo of the new build:

Caliwild

Looks fantastic! I actually picked up a Mondonico with a carbon fork but swapped back in the original steel fork (sold the carbon fork). Here's the thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...ico-el-os.html

sthurman

Awesome, thanks for sharing! I heavily favor steel forks with steel bikes too nice build too!

Caliwild

Thanks! Yeah, the carbon fork on the bike was ruining the ride. The steel fork added weight but smoothed everything out. Love Mondonico! Enjoy yours...

krakhaus 

I have a blue one. It's on my 56cm Diamond, same frame as yours, but it's not original. It's a slightly darker blue than the frame. I was going to get them both resprayed, but I'm probably just going to get a carbon fork for it. I actually like carbon forks.

unworthy1

SO...you'll have a spare steel fork, then?
Sell it to @sthurman!
It may be slightly earlier than his frame, but you'll make his day!

sthurman

niceunworthy1
Yes, I am definitely interested! if you will sell the fork, please PM me.

unworthy1

and since it's on a 56cm it might be a perfect fit, tho obviously not chrome. You can't win 'em all!
GLWS if there is one!

sthurman

So I got lucky and Krakhaus sold me the blue fork as it was a perfect match (except the color). Thanks Joey! I'm going to give an overview of the whole thing in case anybody finds my adventure helpful.

I was hoping to spend about $200 or less to get a matching fork. So the fork had very nice paint, but it was blue and my frame is red so I made the decision to get it chromed because paint matching would be difficult. The fork had been cut and did not have much threading, so I also decided to have it threaded another inch at 2 wheeler dealer in Brea, CA. I chose a local company to do the chrome (Paramount) and it was a good experience except a few hiccups.

I paid $130 for fork and $15 for shipping. I paid $25 for threading but also had to pay another $15 because they had to grind away chrome on the steerer tube. I paid $125 for chrome but had to pay another $25 for paint stripping and $25 for chrome removal (unfinished chrome under the paint). So in total this fork cost me $360, way over budget.

Was it worth it? Hell yeah! I pay that much at costco every few days for food. I will get hundreds of hours of enjoyment from this bike (I am anal and couldn't stand that I didn't have a matching fork).

Anyhow, here are some photos with the brand new chromed matching fork...

krakhaus 

It looks amazing, sucks that it ended up costing so much, but it looks beautiful. I'm inspired to get my Mondonico done now.

bamboobike4

Julian in Chattanooga.

unworthy1

aside from the cost (hey: that's inflation!) it's a happy ending to this tale!

And hard to find the perfect fork for small coin these days anyhow, I am shocked at what the eBay sellers that have cornered the market ask for good quality Italian forks!

The new chrome plating looks first rate, and nearly impossible to find chrome-plating in California nowadays, so you lucked out finding Paramount!

At a glance the Mondo fork looks pretty close to the temp Moser: how do the measurements compare?
Do you notice any diff in the ride/handling between these 2 similar steel Italian forks?

mhespenheide 

I actually think the cost was quite reasonable. You're looking at $250 - $300 or more for a new quality steel fork, and those are neither from Mondonico nor chromed. As you point out, it's a very worthwhile one-time cost for long-term use. Not a "deal", but very high value.

sthurman

I agree on all points! The quality of the chrome plating is great. The only issues were that they chromed the entire fork including the steerer up to the threads, and because the chrome was thick the steerer no longer fit in the headset nor did the fork crown race slide down into position. They worked with me and grinded away material on the steerer until this issue was resolved. Then when I went to put the wheel in I realized that the axel no longer fit in the dropouts so I had to use a grinder to remove material inside the dropouts until the axel would fit. I expect that this shop has learned from these issues and avoid these problems next time.

Not knowing how to measure a fork properly, I can only comment on ride characteristics of each fork. The handling is very similar between the mondo and moser forks on this frame. If anything, the steering is slightly quicker or twitchier with the mondo fork, but overall stability (as measured with hands off the bar) is similar.

An interesting side note, before I had the Moser fork I had an 80s tange fork from a Lotus Supreme installed for a few months. I painted it black because it was originally pink and I thought at least it looks like a carbon fork. Anyhow, this fork had more rake and the wheel sat further out and I must say that this configuration had the most enjoyable steering/handling qualities. But I prefer an original fork to ride the frame "as intended" by the master framebuilder.

Here is a photo with the black lotus fork and a neo retro build so my buddy could ride it at eroica CA this year: