Good morning everyone,

I’m trying to get the spec for my new Prophet sorted, i’ve got a Pushed RP23 on the way, (thanks for your help z1ppy, IA, bughendo, et al !) and can’t decide on the forks.

Was looking at these and CRC do a 1.5″ streerer version.

Anybody know anything about these RLT versions, I can’t seem to find any other users or opinions of them, or seen any other good alternatives?

Also, does anybody know what headset I would need for the tapered fork? I’m finding it incredibly difficult to work out, bloody ‘standards’.

Cheers

Careful on the headset thing. Does your frame have the big spacer as the bottom race? You need that to stop swiping your twirly bits off the forks on the downtube if you crash. When ‘dale designed it originaly they did it with the Lefty in mind, so clearance under the downtube for fork crowns wasn’t an issue. Anyway, with the big Cannondale spacer you’re kind of limited to an FSA bearing in the bottom and 1 1/8 only. Might be some deep external cups that you could get to allow 1 1/2 steerer forks and still have clearance on the downtube, but I don’t know.

As for the forks, I ran 150mm Revs on mine and it was all good.

Enjoy it. Great bike.

No, it doesn’t have the big spacer. Can I get a headset with a large stack height at the bottom race in order for the forks to clear?

Aye, that’s what you’ll need to look for or get the spacer from a dealer, but then you’re stuck with 1 1/8 only. Or choose forks with low crowns and few buttons on top but be careful.

The Cane Creek Cannondale specific reducer headset comes with same 1.5 bearings, you just need to get hold of the 1.5 specific crown and top races. 😉 Well worth the effort IMO especially when you consider how much you’ll save on forks. For tapered forks just get the lower race.

Having previously owned a Prophet run with 160mm droppable forks I would strongly suggest some 1.5 Talas 36’s currently £399 from CRC. They will have less clearance problems than RS forks plus 160mm travel for DH play days then 130/140 for trail mincing with a big drop for extended climbing. Think about adding a 200*57 coil to mix and match with the RP2 for a plush 160mm on the rear.

Climbing

DH

There you go. I’d do that.

I used to have a Prophet and fitted 1.5″ Shermans with an FSA headset. Good setup, still unsure why I sold the bike…

What about the bigger cup hope 1.5″ headset?

I was looking at that, but it says “Not for Cannondales” so I assumed I couldn’t use that?

My prophet came with a reducer headset on it so you can run whatever you like, Ive got air Pikes on at the mo and have previously had Fox Vanillas on it, both suit the bike very well. If youre running 140mm on the rear Id run 140mm on the front, the bike feels nicely balanced that way, IMHO of course. I thought it wasnt recommended to run more than a 200mm eye to eye with a 50mm stroke on the rear due to the rear wheel hitting the frame, presumably no probs with the 160mm then?

I remember Benji Haworth saying he ran a 160mm front with zero spacers on top and was planning on putting 120mm on the back to make it super slack, dunno how that worked out tho.

I used the hope one for my Cannondale hardtail. Give hope a call and ask for the exact dimensions. I think Hope say “not for cannondales” for a specific model that they have in mind.

I’ve been hesitant about getting a straight 1.5″ fork, as stem choice seems pretty limited. The tapered seems like a good idea, but the headset situation is clearly nuts, and needs some genuine form of standardisation across the board.