# help swapping carbon fork for steel touring fork - compatability questions.



## kikoraa (Jul 19, 2012)

I have this bike
Road Bikes - Windsor Wellington 3.0 Web Sale Prices










And would like to slowly start making it more heavy tour friendly.
At a later time I would like to get a steel frame meant for touring but this will have to do for now as far as commuting/light tours. Also a stronger wheelset but that's further down the road as well. 

My question - Could I swap out that carbon fork with the nashbar touring fork? 1 1/8th steerer but would that fork drastically change the geometry and make it unsafe?

Nashbar Touring Frame Fork

I would like to be able to mount a front rack but I guess I would also need to get vbrakes/cantis.
What should I look for that would work with my shimano STI brifters?
Is there a pull ratio or something to keep in mind when looking for brakes?
Could my front road caliper work where you would mount a fender for the time being?

There is decent clearance in the frame for a 28c maybe bigger.

I know there are more questions but I cant think of them off the top of my head right now.

Thanks in advance for the help!


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## bigbill (Feb 15, 2005)

Don't try to force a road bike to be a full-on touring bike. What you have now is about as far as I'd push it. How much do you weigh, how much weight will you carry? If you plan on doing unsupported touring, look for a used good quality steel frame/fork built for touring. Touring bikes have longer wheelbases, relaxed geometry for stability, and numerous mounts varying from fork braze-ons for panniers to additional waterbottle bosses. Plenty of people had grand plans for touring that never quite worked out, you can find a quality used touring bike.


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## kikoraa (Jul 19, 2012)

Gotta do it little by little. I guess ill start by using a touring fork and cantis. I'll keep it to light touring until I can afford a frame. I already have an mtb der and cassette on there. After the frame will come wheels. Or viceversa. Eventually ill sell the sora brifters and get some barcons. Basically buidling a touring bike over time. I wouldn't use a front rack and loaded panniers on it as is. I assume the stress would kill those wheels. Would the fork change the geo of the bike?


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## logbiter (Sep 14, 2005)

kikoraa said:


> Would the fork change the geo of the bike?
> What should I look for that would work with my shimano STI brifters?
> Is there a pull ratio or something to keep in mind when looking for brakes?
> Could my front road caliper work where you would mount a fender for the time being?


-Your best bet is to measure the axle-crown length of the current fork. The common AC length for road bikes is 370mm, like the nashbar one you linked to. Longer AC length would put the front end a bit higher & make steering slower...
-for brakes, your only choices are cantilevers (or mini V's), if you continue to use the sora shifters. You could get levers for linear-pull/v-brakes once you went to barcons, if you really wanted to (eg. tektro rl520's). Canti's are abundant & readily available for cheap, get some decent koolstop pads (salmon or dual compound for the wet).
-so, no the fork isn't designed to mount center-pull brakes where the fender mount is.
-you could probably mount 35+mm wide tires w/ fenders in the touring fork


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## kikoraa (Jul 19, 2012)

Would raising it from a 370mm to 390mm a2c make a huge negative impact on handling? I may know of a surly lht fork for the low but its a2c is 20mm more. That's just under and inch.


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## krisdrum (Oct 29, 2007)

If touring is your main goal, why not grab a Nashbar frame and fork, swap over as many of the current parts as you can (most should work, outside of the brakes) and then try to recoup the investment by selling off the current frame and fork? The Nashbar frames are on sale basically every week, recently they have even been running some "extra 15% off" sales that could get you the frameset for a good price.

As for the wheels, they look to be 32 hole, 3x, not as stout as 36 hole, but should do a reasonable job with the added weight of touring gear.


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## kikoraa (Jul 19, 2012)

krisdrum said:


> If touring is your main goal, why not grab a Nashbar frame and fork, swap over as many of the current parts as you can (most should work, outside of the brakes) and then try to recoup the investment by selling off the current frame and fork? The Nashbar frames are on sale basically every week, recently they have even been running some "extra 15% off" sales that could get you the frameset for a good price.
> 
> As for the wheels, they look to be 32 hole, 3x, not as stout as 36 hole, but should do a reasonable job with the added weight of touring gear.


Yea that's kind of what its turning Into. I commute to work and want to do some touring. I actually just bought the nashbar touring fork but it won't deliver till april. I'm cool with that because that gives me some time to save for the frame and decent brakes, fatter tires. 

I initially bought this road bike in hopes to get into sport road rides but that hasn't happened. I do race mtb endurance and mtb 4+ days a week but the roads just bore me when it comes to "training" I love riding with a destination though! 

I plan to do just what you said. Buy frame and swap parts while slowly swapping for more tour oriented components. I don't plant to keep this bike much longer. I may keep the carbon fork though for a fixed gear barhopper build I've been messin with. Too many damn bikes I want!


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## logbiter (Sep 14, 2005)

kikoraa said:


> Would raising it from a 370mm to 390mm a2c make a huge negative impact on handling?


it'll change the headangle ~1 degree... noticeable, probably. Huge difference in handling, doubtful. 
Be sure to cut the steerer tube plenty long on the new fork, so you'll have room to work with on a new frame & changing around stems, etc.

I agree with touring bike for touring mentality, though what you're doing should be fine for overnighters... The nashbar tourer on sale seems to be a pretty good deal, I almost bought one when my last commuter was stolen. I was looking hard at it when it was on sale for ~$600 with a 15-20%off coupon. Touring isn't in near future for me, so I didn't pull the trigger on it.


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