[Toshi]

due to a rack mishap my lovely klein now has a broken fork. what should i replace it with? i'm on a student budget so i'm looking primarily at the $120-under forks. also keep in mind that i don't race (i run a triple ) and am generally slow already so top notch performance isn't of utmost concern. some options from our friendly local mail order shops

nashbar carbon fork for $60 (!)

easton ec30 from nashbar, $100

easton ec70 from supergo, $100 -- ec70 is superior to ec30, no?

and the "expensive" (in this group at least! ) option:
profile bdc from nashbar, $135

of these, what would you sage road bikers choose? like i said, cheap is good. my bike takes 1 1/8" threadless, just for the record.

my poor old fork, the ground was unforgiving at 60 mph...

 

[Pulser955]

Just be careful we have seen some of the cheaper carbon forks with carbon steer tubs crack under normal use.

 

[Toshi]

Just be careful we have seen some of the cheaper carbon forks with carbon steer tubs crack under normal use.

what would you recommend? the above vendors don't have non-carbon road forks listed, to the best of my knowledge...

 

[Pulser955]

what would you recommend? the above vendors don't have non-carbon road forks listed, to the best of my knowledge...

I would stick with the Easton’s. They are well known company. Part of the problem is with cheap forks is you don't know who makes them. And that cool carbon weave you see is fake its just for looks. When you brake it down there is no filament weave to give it strength. The Performance forks that cracked were just carbon and resin there was no mono filament weave to give the structure any strength.

 

[Zaphod]

Of those I would go with the EC70.

I had a Kinesis (I think I paid $125 for it) fork on my old road frame and it worked well. My new frame came with a 'house brand' fork which also seems to work very well.

 

[Toshi]

coolness. i may have a line on a kinesis fork myself, but if that doesn't work out i'm sure the ec70 would be fine.

 

[fatpandas]

i got an EC50 from them a few years ago, aero/straight bladed fork that easton discontinued, they are probably dropping those two forks in favor of their vastly more expensive 90s of which i think they offer three different forks.
my 50 was 250$ retail marked down to 100$, i think that's how nashbar gets **** out.

 

[dhrider]

ah man that suck, that pic looks like something right out of a biking horor (sp?) movie... im gonna have nightmares totnight .... good luck with finding a new fork tho

 

[Nitromike]

 

[Toshi]

i agree. i am going to order the ec70 now in fact

 

[JRB]

i agree. i am going to order the ec70 now in fact

Did you get it??? I would have chosen the profile, but the easton should work well. I have a reynolds comp. Don't know if they are cheap, but I never flex it. I did flex my kinesis.

 

[Toshi]

Did you get it??? I would have chosen the profile, but the easton should work well. I have a reynolds comp. Don't know if they are cheap, but I never flex it. I did flex my kinesis.

i ordered the easton on saturday so it should arrive soon (as should my road bike itself! it's currently living in the trunk of one of my parents' cars since there was no room for it when i moved to seattle this past weekend).

 

[JRB]

Cool - let us know how you like it.

 

[Pulser955]

i ordered the easton on saturday so it should arrive soon (as should my road bike itself! it's currently living in the trunk of one of my parents' cars since there was no room for it when i moved to seattle this past weekend).

Good choice I have that fork on my Jamis and I like it a lot.

 

[Toshi]

update: i'm an idiot. i assumed my road bike would be 1 1/8" since it's threadless. but it's not.

on the upside there is a supergo retail store about 8 blocks away from me and they'll accept the return.

 

[chicodude]

They make 1" Threadless?

 

[Toshi]

i didn't know such things existed either. but they do: it's definitely a threadless system and the fork spacers from the klein don't fit over the steerer tubes on my other bikes, which are all 1 1/8" threadless (and all outfitted with King headsets so that i could run the monster on my xc hardtail or the rigid fork on the canfield, heh).

 

[chicodude]

Hmmm. I just have a 1" threaded on mah road bike. Must be hard to find parts for it if you didnt even know it exsisted (SP?)......

 

[JRB]

1" steerers are very common on road bikes. Threaded and unthreaded. Bummer Toshi. Hope you get it resolved quickly.

 

[Toshi]

it's all resolved now. the local supergo retail store accepted my mailorder return and had a weyless 1" threadless carbon fork in stock. the weyless was cheaper, too, so i purchased a chainring to replace the bent one from the same rack incident and a spare tube so that the final balance would be positive -- i ended up paying 57 cents for the fork, tube, chainring, star-fangled nut in the final tally.

 

[JRB]

Cool - let us know how the fork works out.