The Facts;
New frame has a tapered headtube.
Bought a new headset that came with 1.5 – 1 1/8th crown race
Looking for new fork to fit.
I can get 1 1/8th or tapered version of fork
tapered is £20 more and I would need a new crown race at £15.

The questions;
Worth extra £35 for tapered stearer?
What are the advantages?

Stiffness and steering accuracy will be noticeably better. Also gives the downtube/top tube a larger weld contact area to mate too.

Give it a few years and you wont be able to buy a frameset without a tapered headtube, best get on the bandwagon early imo.

The opposing argument is not to bother with tapered. Get a “regular” steerer. If you change frames or forks in the (not-too-distant) future you might have more success buying/selling/fitting if you have a more readily adopted standard. This from a man who has got a tapered steerer on his forks (it was too cheap not to).

Stiffness and steering accuracy will be noticeably better

Really? I mean REALLY??

I’ll second resisted, all high end forks will only come in tapered soon enough… which means it will trickle down through to lower end eventually.
On another note 1 1/8th steerer forks will look crap on a tapered headtube.

Steering accuracy?!!

its a well documented fact that putting a tapered steerer’d fork on your bike improves skill level and therefore steering accuracy….. 🙄

I think I need a sleep.

I think Brant mentioned on another thread that the ‘standard’ for tapered doesn’t specify the height of the taper… marvellous standard there.

Can’t say I’ve ever noticed much movement around the crown, legs and bushes yes but never crown.

I have a tapered steer tubed frame and using tapered forks, it’s nice and stiff but can’t say I really notice it being stiffer but then would have to ride two a version of the frame with a standard headtube back to back to say…
What I would say is that for an extra £35 I would go with tapered, purely for aesthetic reasons, as mentioned above a standard fork in a tapered head tube does look terrible!

Well i have two pairs of 140mm floats both 15mm one tapered and one
1 1/8th and i cant feel any difference! emporers new clothes me thinks!!

I changed from a 2010 frame to a 2011 version of the same, the newer one with tapered steerer, and whilst I’d never had cause for concern with the old one, the newer one does go round corners noticeably better with the same wheels.

Could be frame, rather than purely the fork/steerer, but definitely a difference.

I don’t buy into this tapered is better (stiffer) argument.
The steerer tube is a reasonably short tube, supported at both ends. Cant see a bigger bearing at the bottom making any noticeable difference.
And if the frame’s head tube is already wider than the top and down tube (normally is), then an even bigger headtube will result in LESS weld area.

Definitely Emperor’s new clothes!

Definitly stiffer and better! Don’t be foolish! Get the tapered! 8)

>Give it a few years and you wont be able to buy a frameset without a tapered headtube, best get on the bandwagon early imo.<

LOL. Give it a few years and they’ll have thought of another bandwagon for folk like you to be trading up to.

I find the bars + stem flex much more than the fork/frame on my setup.

I thought that the main reason for tapered steerers was for weight saving not stiffness. As you need to put a lot of metal into 1 1/8″ steerers once the travel goes over 5″. However with the increased diameter of the tapered steerer enables manufacturers to get around this.

I should imagine all forks will go this way as its an easy way to shave a bit of weight off a full build.

I think a lot of frame designers use it so that they can use bigger tubes on the rest of the bike, with bigger weld areas and massive overall stiffness. Seriously though, what’s not to like? You get a new frame if you want one, it doesn’t matter what the headtube is, all your forks will fit, or you can get new forks that fit a little better. Easy.