WTB - Riv Fork; 26" wheel canti

[Tony DeFilippo]

I'm looking to re-fork my XO-3 for easier 2" tire clearance and mid-fork braze on's for rackage.  I've got a 59cm XO-3 and the head tube is about 24cm so I'd need at least that, more would be fine or preferred on the steerer tube.  26" wheel canti preferred as I want to run my Bruce Gordon fancy canti brakes on this rig.  I'd take any color, pretty much any usable condition.  Figure it's a long shot but maybe someone has one laying around.  PM me if you want to sell, I've got some interesting bits for trade to if that is more up your alley.

Thanks,
Tony

[Tony DeFilippo]

One more thought, if I can't find a Riv fork an old segmented canti MTB fork would also be cool and I could manage w/o the braze ons.  Tony

[James Warren]

I hope this works for you, because it's already such a great, fun bike. It'll be really cool to enhance it.

I got tremendous use out of my low price red XO-3, riding it to work and all over back in 2000. I'm 6'4", but I made it work with the Riv bar at the time shaped like Albatross but that couldn't take bar-end shifters. Great bike and not TOO precious. Kinda perfect in that way. I'd leave it locked outside while seeing a movie. I eventually gave it to a nephew and he spilled paint on it by accident, but the ride is still great.

The 26" XO-3 is one of the best Bridgestones, and was probably underrated. Clem-like, I think. (Except I doubt the Clem is underrated.) And it's lugged!

-Jim

Sent from my iPhone

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[Conway Bennett]

The stock fork stinks and limits what you can do up forward. I did the same sort of thing with my 59 xo-2 but actually used 58 cm hunq fork and dropped the canti posts. I think I ended being into the fork for around $300 which is in custom range.

Depending on what tires you run maybe start thinking about crimping the chain stays. I haven't but I've thought about it.

[Tony DeFilippo]

Thanks Jim, I agree about the 26" XO-3's being a bit of a forgotten great bike.  The 26" wheels really work well for it.  

Conway I think it was a post of yours that got me thinking about a replacement fork again. I had been looking into it back when Riv was trying to sell it's spare forks (pre-Rosco project) and none of the canti models seemed just right for whatever reason.  Going with sidepul's would fix that for sure.

The bike did great for me today though, even with the stock fork my daughter and I had a wonderful 11ish mile ramble in and around Alexandria.  Towards the end we caught on with a nice fellow named Joe riding a sweet moustache bar'd Bleriot.  Said he was the original owner and we had a very nice chat.  Great day for a ride around here!

My daughter Rebecca and the XO-3 down at Jones Point Lighthouse on the Potomac. It's the site of the southern most boundary stone demarking the original 10x10mile square that is the District of Columbia.  You may notice that the XO is collecting some nice parts, WI Eno crankset, the BG canti's, Nitto post wtih Rivet saddle.  The post/saddle is not for bling but b/c that combo allows me to slide the saddle back further than any others I have which really makes the knee clearance with the Yepp Mini go away.  

[Michael Morrissey]

I was looking for almost the same thing and couldn't find it.  I bought an ordinary Tange 26" fork from Bruce Gordon instead. 

Perhaps a custom builder could do a run of these forks: 26", lugged, 2.4" tire clearance, absurd number of braze-ons, a nice paint color.  I'm not going to say a ton of people would want this, but there's probably enough for a small batch.  If so, I'm in.

m

On Saturday, April 8, 2017 at 11:35:19 AM UTC-4, Tony DeFilippo wrote:

[Norman Bone]

Great idea. I'd buy two for sure.

-Norm '559 forever' Bone in PDX

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From: Michael Morrissey <michaelg...@gmail.com>
To: RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2017 6:35 PM
Subject: [RBW] Re: WTB - Riv Fork; 26" wheel canti

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[Conway Bennett]

Maybe reach out to norther cycles?

[Tony DeFilippo]

When the Rawland crowd all wanted Stag replacement forks I think they went to Jeff Lyon...?  I want to say 10-12 was his batch threshold and I don't know what the actual costs ended up being.

My only replacement fork experience was w/ Riv and my Saluki replacement. Ended up being a newly built to spec Waterford fork that took quite a while and I want to say grew to $375 shipped by the end...    That's not the right ballpark for my XO-3 to be sure.

Michael - I've been poking around locally and on ebay at used chomoly canti forks, the unicrown classic ones are definitely in abundance and would get the job done.

On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 12:30 AM Conway Bennett <captaincon...@gmail.com> wrote:

Maybe reach out to norther cycles?

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[EasyRider]

Tony, I think an old 1" threaded unicrown would be the way to go, but could be really hard to find one with such a long steerer. Prob most of the mountain bikes of the late 80s and early 90s that might serve as donors had shorter headtubes in their largest frame size than the XO-3. Probably most donor bikes would also have a slacker headtube than your XO-3, so a donor fork might make handling a bit different.

I couldn't justify having a new fork made for my RB-T, but if you had a custom fork made for your bike, it would also fit the 1993 XO-1, XO-2, XO-3 and XO-4, the 1992 XO-1 and XO-2, and the 1994 XO-3. All those bikes had 26" wheels and a 59cm frame with more or less identical geometry. All those bikes' stock forks suffer from limited (by today's standards) tire clearance and (I believe) narrow cantilever boss spacing that prevents the use of brakes designed for wider bosses, like the Tektros Riv sells, or Pauls. If you some day crack your XO-3's bottom bracket, or spot a killer deal on a different XO, you'd be able to transplant your custom fork.

Check out the custom fork on this old Trek, apparently $200-$300: http://theradavist.com/2014/01/beautiful-bicycle-benedicts-trek-970-650b-shred-sled/#11

[Michael Morrissey]

I dug up info on the Jeff Lyon Rawland forks: they were around $250 each. That's not just pocket change, but the forks looked perfect and beautiful. They also initially thought 4 people were interested, yet ended up ordering 22 of them.

Anyone interested at that price point? Who loves theit 26" beater/bar bike/trash bike?!

M

[Tony DeFilippo]

Michael,

I'd definitely be in at that price point for that kind of fork.

I was also thinking today about looking at custom builder who builds​ in batches and have a similar fork for their semi custom runs... If the was one like that it might be compelling and relatively less expensive to tack on a couple forks.  Elephant and Bantam came to mind but of course both of them are doing batches of threadless forks I believe.  They also seem to have more than enough business these days anyway.

But to your question, yes I'd be interested.

Tony

[Eamon Nordquist]

If we are talking about 1" threaded, lugged crown, and a decent rake, I might be interested. The fork on my 80's Trek Antelope doesn't have as long a steerer ad I'd like, and the unicrown limits fender clearance.

Eamon

[iamkeith]

Here's one that only missed by a cm of steerer length:

http://m.ebay.com/itm/26-inch-Bike-Fork-Gray-1-in-Threaded-for-Mountain-Comfort-Bike-V-Brake-Compatble-/232298936149?hash=item3616187755%3Ag%3AtfQAAOSwU8hY7AnU

Im sure you're watching the bay already, but you should keep an eye for complete bikes as a donor, too. Some of those old lugged stumpjumpers, for instance, had long headtubes with cool biplane fork crowns and can often be had for your price range.

Another idea is to look for a tange (or bontrager) switchblade fork, which also come up regularly. You can bolt in any 1" steerer in a matter of moments, to get the length you need.

[Tony DeFilippo]

Thanks Keith!  Yeah that gray one was almost perfect, might have been 'close enough' as I have some margin at 24cm.  I am keeping an eye on ebay, not quite every day but I do have some searches going.  Those switchblade forks look like they are mostly disc forks... which would work but would necessitate some wheel changes and different braking styles front to back for sure! :)

[iamkeith]

The Tange ones I'm talking about are from the 90's, are canti brake compatible, and look like this:  

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=12350

They licensed the crown design from Bontrager who's forks were similar, but usually had a black crown, beefier legs, and go for a lot more money in the used market place.  The Tange one is probably  fine or even more appropriate for your purpose, because the legs aren't as stiff.  I actually have a couple of the Bontrager ones sitting on my desk at the moment, because I'm doing the steerer swap.  If you find one and are interested, I can walk you through the process and show you where to find the steerers.

Another thought I just had, that may be the best one yet - especially if you can find a 26" riv fork or a too-short X0-1 fork - is to do a steerer extension.   That would surely cost less than a new custom.  I think the typical method is to use a inner dowel/sleeve to butt a new section on and maintain alignment, and then braze or weld together.   On a shorter fork, the sleeve could cause problems with a quill stem, but yours is long enough that it might work great.  

I didn't realize until now that the XO-2/XO-4 crown was different than the XO-1/Atlantis.  The later takes a pretty wide tire.  I can't imagine how that decision made sense, but it sure illustrates the kind of corporate bean counting that Grant must have had to deal with at the time.

[EasyRider]

Me too. I'd put it on a 1990 Trek 950. What crown to use?

[Philip Kim]

i got clockworks to do a custom fork. the only trouble is that there are less options for fork crowns that can accommodate width. 

i got the pacenti MTB crown, which certainly drove up the price since the pacenti MTB crown stock was dwindling, but the price was still decent. He might have cheaper options, but i was set on the pacenti crown. I'd contact him, because why not

[EasyRider]

Can the Pacenti MTB crown do a 1" steerer or is it only 1 1/8"?

[EasyRider]

Also, gotta pic of your fork?

[Mark in Beacon]

I was thinking along those lines, too. Here's a donor, It's a Bianchi Grizzly. Buy it Now, $39. I bet he would ship the fork for $20. Not certain it would be quite long enough.



I did a slight mod to a Rivendell fork when they were selling them individually, sans Rosco frames. Dropped it from 700 to 26":

[Mark in Beacon]

P.S. Just noticed something. That is not a close up of a bald guy's head. It is a German Shepard dog.

[Philip Kim]

Mine was actually 1-1/8" fork. I don't have a picture anymore as I sold the Velo Orange Camargue it was made for.

But I know Clockwork has made it in 1" before - 

On Thursday, April 13, 2017 at 1:57:08 PM UTC-4, EasyRider wrote:

[DarinM]

I tried to post info last week but it didn't go through, I'm interested in looking into this project. 

The Pacenti crown appears to be available again: here.

Here is the relevant thread from the Jeff Lyon/Stag project.

I would expect a lower price could be arranged by not using such premium pieces as the GD crown and Toei blades. 

I imagine most of these would be purchased for older MTB's, were axle-to-crown and offsets consistent enough to build something that would satisfy enough people?

[R. Alexis]

I recall someone on the RBW or iBOB list posting about getting a replacement fork for a 1993 Bridgestone XO-1 from Handsome Cycles by buying one that was used on the XOXO. One of the issues was there is a reverse peak or point that projected down in the middle of the fork crown toward the tire that caused some clearance issues. Don't know how big a tire they were using.

Another option is that Bob Brown Cycles sells his version of the biplane fork crown http://bobbrowncycles.com/images/temp_sale/crown9.jpg, http://bobbrowncycles.com/images/temp_sale/crown8.jpg,

I just contacted him about building me a rigid for for my early 90's Waterford 1400 mountain  because I thought the design and style seemed like a better match to the lugs on that bike than the Pacenti fork crown. I did consider trying to get a Rawlands cSogn fork with the Pacenti fork crown and having the canti braze-on moved to accommodate 26" mountain wheel. My concern was the axle to crown distance, but I never looked and compared what the distance was between what the early suspension corrected length should be on a fork for the Waterford frame and what the 27.5"/650B crown length of the Rawlands CSogn would be. I think the length would be pretty comparible.

Bob told me it would be about a 6 month wait. Also said he could sell his fork crown to me to have a local builder make me a fork if I wanted. The crown can be build for both 11

[R. Alexis]

Sorry, lost the text and hit send too soon.

The Bob Brown Cycles fork crown can be built both for 1" and 11/8" via shim per his description here, http://bobbrowncycles.com/sale.htm , and has good clearance.

I don't know if Handsome Cycles or Rawlands still has any forks. My guess is that Handsome may have some, but that Rawlands probably does not since they have moved and has not produced the Sogn in a while.

Another possibly viable option is to check with Rivendell to see what forks they have available that they are willing to sell you.

Hope this helps.

Reginald Alexis 

[R. Alexis]

Another option in line with what has already been mentioned, Find a suspension fork crown that works for you and allows legs to be bolted to it and have a builder make a legs that will fit it. It does not have to be the Bontrager/Rock Shox one. It can be a later Rock Shox one with just the bolt on fork legs, as long as the steerer is the size that works. RST used to offer separate fork crown for their fork shox. Other than that later Rock Shox and Manitou forks that bolted to the legs will work.

Thanks,

Reginald Alexis