Forkage

Finished up Hayride’s segmented fork today.  I’m thinking it’s lookin pretty darn good! From where I was a year ago, to where I am now…it’s been a long trip but I can finally say I feel comfortable with my fabrication to make stuff for friends.  He’s been riding my 1st frame for a few weeks trying to break it and it’s holding strong.  Now it’s time for a new fork on his Spot 29er and this should be a good change from the Surly fork.

This fork build went well. I feel myself settling into things a bit better now, and things come together faster as well.  The main part of this type of fork build that I need to streamline is the top caps.  This time, I silver brazed them, with oh so little silver to fill the tiny gap that the 0.025″ sheet makes over the leg.  I do the caps differently every time and so far this was the best way.  They are not structural in any way so just getting a tiny bit of silver in there is more than sufficient. I held the steerer in the bike stand as level as possible and laid the circular caps on top after lightly brushing some flux on all surfaces.  Then, I put some heavy(ier) steel cones on top to hold them in place while the torch introduced some turbulence into the equation and the flux heats up making things a bit slippery.  Things stayed put very well and I was in and out of there pretty quick with no overheating of the top caps (like I have done the last two times with brass).  Anyways, I think it looks pretty sweet! Almost seamless transition between the top caps and the legs.  I’m sure there’s a better method so any people out there got any advice?

Next in line is my wife’s frame and fork.  I’m a bit nervous honestly…imagine if something goes wrong! The consequences! It’s going to be a 26″ wheeled bike and smaller in size than my first 3 frames.  Pics to come soon…

All the little things take awhile to finish – top caps & crown race & disc cable brazons, cleaning, wire-wheel to clean, prime and paint.  I don’t know how anyone makes money selling forks.  They are fun to make and ride though so I’ll continue to make them for me and my friends.