Considering a new bike and would probably want to sell on the fork – which has a tapered steerer.

Had a devil of a job shifting a tapered Domain a while ago, is it likely to be the same for a 140mm Fox 32 with QR15?

looking at prices for tapered fox’s on CRC there’s some oversupply.

Oversupply only until all the 2011 frames start becoming available in greater numbers.

If you have a tapered headtube do you need a tapered steerer?

If you have a tapered headtube do you need a tapered steerer?

No you can get a reducer cup for the bottom of your headtube if you need to use a 1.125in steerer.

In theory anyway, never tried actually getting hold of one.

MRanger156 – Member

If you have a tapered headtube do you need a tapered steerer?

No, you can use a normal steerer with a reducer cup on the bottom. I think its Hope who have very helpfully started demystifying headsets/tubes and allowing us to buy a top and bottom half to suit our exciting range of ‘standards’.

indeed, Hope are great with their head sets and they are top quality too!

But their reducer bottom cup is pretty ugly. on One have a very nice and good looking reducer headset and quite a few others are doing them now.

There’s been an oversupply on tapered forks for a few years now, which is odd as you’d think the manufacturers would have learned.

Problem is that for everyone 10 people with a tapered headtube, 5 will be like me and want to run 1.18th so they can swap forks between their bikes a bit easier.

Why not just keep the fork it cones with? There’s nowt wrong with Fox 32s! As far as I can see changing it is chucking good money after bad… 😕

I might have missed something, but why does tapered exist? does it have any advantages over a straight 1.5 fork/headset?

Why not just keep the fork it cones with?

It doesn’t match MY wheel standard, which is the much-more sensible 20mm.

CRC’s tapered forks they were selling off were all 100mm travel. Most frames with tapered headtubes are designed for 140mm or more.

Tapered forks – more marketing guff to convince people theyll ride better if they splash put on another irrelevant innovation. You can count me out…

5lab – most of the advantages of 1.5 but a bit lighter (apparently)

My blur has a tapered headtube, but i’m not sure the aftermarket would be particually good for a set……

It doesn’t match MY wheel standard, which is the much-more sensible 20mm.

So either

a) Why not keep the wheels it comes with as well?

b) Or modify your existing wheel to 15mm (New spacers/new hub/transplant hub off new bike)

Both of which are cheaper than throwing money at ‘downgrading’ your forks!

Loosing the tapered steerer to retain a 20mm axle is cutting your nose off to spite your face, becasue the net gain is nothing but weight!

Redundant tapered headtube, heavier headset, heavier 20mm axle, all for a tiny increase in axle stifness? Nahh. Barking up the wrong teee, chap! 🙂

Or even buy new lower legs to convert the 15mm to 20mm, save the OE lowers and wheels and refit when you sell the bike, all nice and spangly! 🙂 Best of both worlds that way!

Tapered forks – more marketing guff to convince people theyll ride better if they splash put on another irrelevant innovation. You can count me out…

They sid that about 8sp/9sp drivetrains, disc brakes, SPDs…… 😉

Fox don’t do 20mm lowers for the 32, the buggers.

I value being able to swap wheels quickly between bikes – extra stiffness is a happy byproduct – and 20mm forks are not noticeably heavier than 15mm ones.

Plus selling new fork and wheels enables me to get a bit of cashback.

What wheels do you use? Can you not just get an adaptor for them? 🙂

Quite a few you can’t get adaptors for. 15mm hubs are 5mm narrower, so for some the adaptors would mean the disc rotor hits the fork legs, depends on the flange-flange distance.

I had to sell some recently, as I didn’t what what came with the bike & they were pretty cheap, because of the tapered steerer. However they still sold.

The whole E2 steerer ‘standard’ is a massive PITA still as it’s not the same as a normal 1.5″ bottom cup, which is normally ~49mm ID, the E2 is ~55mm, so you can’t even use/modify a normal 1.5″ reducer headset.

Why they couldn’t use a normal 1.5″ bottom cup, I have no idea, there is still enough room to run a zero stack, even with a 1.5″ fork. Utterly pointless.

15mm hubs are 5mm narrower

FFS ! If that’s true it’s …

Get a Pro II hub front wheel. You can run QR, 15mm or 20mm. Takes all of 5 minutes to swap. 15mm hubs are just as quick as 20mm to fit in the forks

I’m very impressed with my Vanilla 15mm bolt through forks. Plenty stiff enough compared to Fox 36s with 20mm bolt through.

paulrockliffe – Member
Quite a few you can’t get adaptors for. 15mm hubs are 5mm narrower, so for some the adaptors would mean the disc rotor hits the fork legs, depends on the flange-flange distance.

A hub with 15mm adaptors is the same width as a hub with 20mm adaptors. 🙄

YGM chapaking

I’ve got the same wheels as chakaping IIRC, and while you can get adaptors, it’s a faff to take the rotors off each time you want to switch wheels from bike to bike.

For all this faffing, why don’t you choose a different bike/spec? If you are throwing the wheels and forks out, why not look again at what you are shelling out for?