How do conversions with the Crust delivery fork ride?

[Patrick Moore]

From another thread: Can anyone say how the Crust fork changes the ride, if at all? (Comparing apples to apples: unladen, of course).

And can anyone say how much weight you can put onto a Crust conversion without horribly harming the handlng? 40 lb ok?

I am thinking that perhaps a Crust conversion might make more sense than a Dahon Hon Solo now that I am no longer driving my daughter around (she got her license 21/2 years ago).

Although I hear that built Clems cost $1,600 and can take 60 mm tires ....

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[Joe Bernard]

Hehe, you've discovered the fatal flaw of the Crust cargo fork conversion: Looking across the room at your Clem and realizing you already own a cargo bike 🙂

[Erik Wright]

I put a Clydesdale fork on a 26" Tom Teesdale all-rounder that I picked up a few years ago after it was passed around the iBob community for a while. (Fun fact, this bike was also my introduction to the iBob community circa 2016). With weight on the fork, it handles great. Without weight, it still handles great, but a tad more... skiddish? It certainly has a different feel than with the original fork and 26" wheel, but it's also my only bike with a 20" wheel so it could be that. It could also be the fact that I can't see the front wheel underneath my cargo platform, which makes it a weird mental thing. It could also be a change in HTA or axle-to-crown length, because I've never actually taken those measurements to see if they align with Crust's recommendations. "Skiddish" doesn't mean poor, just different.

I'd say it can certainly handle 40lbs, easily. I think it really shines once there's weight on there because the weight seems to disappear once you're moving. I've still had to wrestle the bike around a bit (see photo with boxes of brochures stacked) when there's a LOT of weight, but it gives a nice glide-y feeling when loaded up.

Hot tip: pick up a collapsible crate like those offered by BigAnt so you can use it as a flat platform to move furniture or other big things, but also use it as a big ol' crate for grocery shopping etc.

I've attached a few photos: one photo shows the fork unladen and the crate in basket mode; another photo shows it loaded with a Crust Evasion that I purchased a few weeks ago and rode to pick up; and the third photo shows it bike loaded up with TOO MUCH WEIGHT the other day (~150lbs).

My apologies if they show up sideways. I can't seem to figure that one out.

[Drw]

Mine rides great loaded and unloaded. If you’ve ever put a ton of weight on a front rack/normal fork, the crust fork is infinitely better at handling that weight and making the ride pretty normal and unfloppy/bendy.

I have it on a bike that also has a pretty hefty kid seat on the back and that is way more negatively impactful on the ride than the cargo fork. When I take the kid seat off, it feels like I’m flying, even with a big front load.

I used it all summer for trips to the beach, carrying all the beach stuff for 3 humans. I also used it to do all our shopping and it handled a weeks worth of food for all of us just fine too. Over 50lbs I can feel some flex, but I think that might be because I have the 1” version.

I have an Atlantis, this cargo bike and a brompton. The brompton rides in a way that Feels odd to me consistently. The cargo fork you forget about after a second or 2

[Patrick Moore]

Thanks, all.

[Chris Marshall]

I'm not an expert, but I've had a crust conversion fork on my one of my bikes for nearly two years. The bike is a 1990s mountain racing bike suspension corrected for 80mm of travel, and the crust fork makes the bike FUN. Your mileage may vary, of course. But I've found that unloaded, the fork makes the bike a little bit more skittish-handling, or "agile" if you like it, and I do. Honestly, putting weight on the rack part makes it handle better. Dramatically so. A load calms the bike down but doesn't weigh it down, if that makes sense. It's so much more comfortable to haul 20-40 lbs of groceries on this bike than distributing the same load across four panniers, for example. I can feel the load, but the bike keeps its sporty, 90s racer feel. I've also loaded it with all the firewood it can take, and it was totally fine. Holds 20lbs of Pomeranian just fine, too! 

I can't recommend this fork enough. Way cheaper (and more fun, IMO) than a purpose built cargo bike. I've been meaning to try the fork on other frames, but it just feels so good on this one! 

[Gabriel Bruguier]

I've done two Clydesdale builds, one not-so-great, and one quite great.  

The not-so-great was on a '91 MB-2.  The fork made the handling floppy unweighted and I would notice a slight shimmy when rolling down hills, both with a load and without.  I wish I would have tried different bars with it-- I was running the Fairweather Bullmoose, which have a much shorter reach than I usually run.  But oddly enough (for me), I didn't experiment, and left it to languish until put the MB-2 back into rotation with its original fork.  (Note: the wheel in the photo was a spare and not the one on which the aforementioned observations were based on.)

The great is on a '88 (I think) Rockhopper.  Unloaded this build handles almost spot on to the original, and can take a 2 grocery bag load like a champ.  No flop or shimmy at all.  I can even ride it no handed (unloaded), which I wouldn't dare attempt on the previous build.  I can't pretend to know why this one works, but it confirms all the rave reviews this fork inspires.  

[jstewse]

I'll add a data point for a bad handling setup.  I put on clydesdale fork on a (mid-eighties?) Schwinn Sierra that had some slack, early MTB angles, I don't know how slack, but that thing was a floppy mess.  Tolerable and not really a huge deal once you got used to it unloaded, but with any considerable weight it was really lousy.  I had been waiting for an appropriately sized frame with a steeper HT angle to fall into my lap, but I sold it before that happened.  For big grocery hauls, I prefer my BOB trailer.