Robvolz 

I tried 3 places, all sold out. Thought I'd just ask if one of you have one in your drawer of future projects and just are not using it.

Message me
Robert

Andrew R Stewart 

Robert- Have to admit that I don't remember the crown's shape, do you have a photo? I do have some older 1" steerer crowns but none were marked Nc-17. Andy

Cynikal 

All of my fork crowns are only R rated

unterhausen

I'm trying to think of who would designate a fork crown NC-17 and coming up blank.
Google doesn't know either. Did you look at Ceeway?
What places did you try?

Robvolz 

Ceeway is who was out

Others have referred to it as a Chen

Cynikal 

Do you mean Long Shen? They just closed the business, owners retired. I believe Tange took over their production.

unterhausen

It's not surprising the Ceeway doesn't have any, because they have no crowns designated NC-17. Is it possible you mean LC-17?

The LC-17 is semi-sloping. The A-17 is flat topped. Framebuilder supply also has an A170 that looks to be a lot like the LC-17. Can you find a link to the crown that you want? I have a lot of crowns, I never kept track of what part numbers they were. Which is probably fairly common among framebuilders.

Andrew R Stewart 

When Robert asked this in another community I spent way more time than I usually do chasing down answers on line. I didn't find one reference to a "NC-17" model by any brand. This is why, here, I asked for an image. Were this model number be only a, long gone, supplier's internal part number it's possible that one of us might have what is sought but not described in a way we know of yet. Andy (who has a stash of various 1" steerer crowns he'd love to see get used)

Andrew R Stewart 

And this is what I thought too but decided that was too easy an answer to find if one did a fairly quick on line search. Thus Robert likely already saw the LC-17 and that wasn't what he is looking for. Andy

unterhausen

Nova used to re-designate part numbers for some reason. Maybe because they would buy from LS or Allotec or some other secret supplier depending on convenience, I don't know.
I'm too lazy to go look at their crowns on the wayback machine. I don't remember what their website url, so that makes the wayback machine a lot more difficult

Robvolz 

OK, OK,
1, I was wrong. which is why I was struggling finding this crown.

2, You were right. It is LC-17. If it weren't for the who know more than me, I would have kept looking for a part that does not exist.

I appreciate those who actually took the time to search for a crown that doesn't exist, I'm sorry I wasted your time like that. I owe you beers.

BUT, thanks to this list, I now realize its the LC-17 and not NC-17.

For the same reason I don't shop on Amazon, I try to buy from my community instead of warehouse fulfillment centers, I ask if anybody wants to sell at LC-17 crown with the two points (fangs) along the sides as pictured.

unterhausen

There is no such thing as the amazon of framebuilding supplies. All of them are small businesses. Ceeway is tiny. You can actually find them on street view.
If you want to support a local business, why don't you buy a A-170 from framebuilder supply? The hole in the tang can be filled in https://framebuildersupply.com/colle...m-inside-width

Ceeway:

Robvolz 

I have Benotto forks on a Colnago tandem.

why? Because that’s the way it came.

people have warned me that stock forks can fail very catastrophically. That I should have some custom forks made that will be stiffer.

I was also planning on having a little clubs cut out, so it looks stock.

To me, they look like they could easily be Derosa forks with a little heart.

dumb
vain
yes, all that.

However, if I’m stepping up and having somebody make me custom forks, I want to go with having them look as if they were original.

Andrew R Stewart 

And while you're at it give the A-C a few more mms to better clear the tire with.

Steel is really nice in giving the observer indications of pending structural issues. Cracks take time to grow, rust generally shows here and there long before wall thicknesses are ate away. My suggestion is to pull any 1" tandem fork annually for inspection and headset servicing.

For this tandem I would strongly suggest the heaviest blades and steerer that can be found. 1" is already undersized for tandems. Andy (who did over 10k mikes on his 1st gen Burley, the fork inchworming along).

Mad Honk 

I bought one from Harry Havnoonian about a week ago with the same design features. It was reasonable in price. It is on it's way to CudaKurt in Miami. The part is on sale from Harry's e-bay store part number 256109794096. Hope this helps in finding one for your tandem. Smiles, MH

bulgie 

Note though, Havnoonian's crowns are already pantographed on top with his HH logo. I think that ruins it for Rob, who wants to put a clover there and then chrome-plate it. Even if you fill the original logo with brass and file it smooth, that will usually show through chrome.

That Long Shen is a Taiwanese knock-off of a Davidson-Takahashi crown that was cast in Japan, by Hitachi I believe.


The Takahashi castings are extremely high quality and the Long Shen is a poor copy, with less crispness and some "naïve" curves where they didn't copy it exactly enough. I would recommend looking for a Takahashi if you can find one. Bill Davidson doesn't make steel forks anymore so if he still has some crowns, he'll probably sell you one.

I made a lot of tandems with that crown. A 1" steerer is sub-optimal, but the crown itself never gave me any qualms -- definitely strong enough for a tandem, and then some. Bill often got them panto'd with his logo, so if you talk to him, ask him where. Most likely someone who's long retired by now, but you never know.

Yep to the idea that FBs can use a crown for years and not remember the model name. I don't remember what that Taka crown was called. Bob Freeman has reminded me a time or two but I still forget, ask him if you need to know. It was itself a sort of knock-off, patterned after the Cinelli MC or MR I think. But those needed separate fork tangs, stamped from sheet metal, that you inserted into the crown alongside the blade. You couldn't even use the crown without the tangs, because the cast-in pocket for the tang needs to be filled up with something, you can't just leave it empty. That was a PITA, so the Taka version was much appreciated by FBs.

EDIT: Ah, here it is, on Bob Freeman's Flickr of course. A better picture of one properly polished and chromed. The model name is ICR-3.

unterhausen

Hayden had a crown a lot like that too. But it had a pattern on the front and back. Wish I had bought some more of those.
Hard to say who copied who. Was there a forged version of it in the pre-IC days?