# Carbon fork vs. aluminum fork.. weight?



## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

Hey guys... so I've got some questions and I'm sure you all can help answer them. I'm currently riding a Specialized TriCross Elite Disc and it is alumnium frame and fork.. I use it for primarily road use. 

Stock, I weighed the bike at 24.5 pounds. I recently made some upgrades and it has dropped some weight. I swapped to a Fizik Antares R1 saddle, Fizik Carbon seatpost, Fizik Cyrano R1 carbon bars, Fizik Alumnium stem, and full Shimano Ultegra 6700 groupset. The bike now weighs 20.9 pounds and the handling and performance is light years different. My plan is to continue riding this bike for the next two years and eventually move up to a Roubaix or Tarmac, but I've been wondering what sort of weight change I'd be looking at with a carbon fork upgrade. Enve says their carbon disc fork weighs 435 grams. Whisky Parts company says their road disc fork weighs 375 grams.... 

so the question is... how much might my aluminum fork weigh? 

I know there will be a contingent that says "forget about the bike, upgrade the engine" or "lose weight, yourself" Trust me, I am. I've been hitting intervals everyday on the bike... riding at least 12 miles everyday and 30+ mile rides on weekends... In 6 months, I've lost 50+ pounds and I feel stronger than ever. I'm just doing research at this point and wondering what sort of gains we might be looking at.. could it be 2 pounds? 1 pound? I really have no idea.

Thanks in advance.


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## mdelmarcelle (Apr 8, 2014)

I'm not sure what the weight savings would be, but the carbon would mute the bumps and vibration a bit, making for a nicer ride.


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## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

mdelmarcelle said:


> I'm not sure what the weight savings would be, but the carbon would mute the bumps and vibration a bit, making for a nicer ride.


Yes.. for sure. I'm pretty familiar with the vibration muting effects of carbon, hence the carbon bars.


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

TricrossRich said:


> Hey guys... so I've got some questions and I'm sure you all can help answer them. I'm currently riding a Specialized TriCross Elite Disc and it is alumnium frame and fork.


Are you sure it has an aluminum fork? I would put a magnet on that fork before I would believe that. Aluminum has not been a very good fork material over the decades. I wouldn't be surprised if the specification list had a misplaced comma in the fork description.


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## ericm979 (Jun 26, 2005)

It's probably got an aluminium steerer even if the fork legs are carbon.

The bump absorbtion of carbon fiber is in the rider's head. I don't even notice much of a difference in vibration damping- maybe some high frequency is damped but that's it.

The best way to find out how much your fork weighs is to take it off and weigh it. 

Many forks have been made from aluminium. We don't see them much any more since carbon fiber forks are pretty cheap to make (though the cheap ones will be heavy- my Motobecane CX bike has an 800g fork! with a steel steerer).

Congrats on the weight loss... but you're not riding all that much yet. If you have the time you could ride more. That'd make you much faster than the very very very small improvement you'll get from a lighter fork.


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## wim (Feb 28, 2005)

Kerry Irons said:


> I wouldn't be surprised if the specification list had a misplaced comma in the fork description.


I wouldn't either, but Specialized did in fact replace the recall-hounded carbon fork on the earlier TriCross bikes with an alloy fork, believe it or not.


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## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

Kerry Irons said:


> Are you sure it has an aluminum fork? I would put a magnet on that fork before I would believe that. Aluminum has not been a very good fork material over the decades. I wouldn't be surprised if the specification list had a misplaced comma in the fork description.


Yes, I'm certain it is aluminum.

Specialized Bicycle Components



ericm979 said:


> It's probably got an aluminium steerer even if the fork legs are carbon.
> 
> The bump absorbtion of carbon fiber is in the rider's head. I don't even notice much of a difference in vibration damping- maybe some high frequency is damped but that's it.
> 
> The best way to find out how much your fork weighs is to take it off and weigh it.


Agreed... just don't really feel like pulling it all apart, especially since I don't plan on changing it anyway... I was just wondering.



ericm979 said:


> Congrats on the weight loss... but you're not riding all that much yet. If you have the time you could ride more. That'd make you much faster than the very very very small improvement you'll get from a lighter fork.


It's funny... I have a bunch of friends that are experienced cyclicts, that all seem to say the same thing. The funny part is, when I compare how much I ride to what they're actually doing, I'm putting in double or triple their mileage in a given week. I've been averaging 125-150 miles per week, about 75 of which is focused interval training on the trainer every morning. Trust me, I'm working on upgrading the engine. I honestly don't have any intention of replacing the fork, I was simply wondering. If someone got ona a said, "Oh man, an aluminum fork weighs 2000 grams." Then perhaps I'd think about swapping it... but if you're telling me your motobecane fork with a steel steerer was 800 grams, than I don't really think its worth the money or work to swap just to get 300-400 grams. I'll just continue to focus on upgrading the engine.


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