Custom made suspension fork legs/lowers?

I need to source a set of forks for my Bow-ti… I'd prefer a modern unit (due to technological improvements etc) but I need an ATC of around 420-440mm and v-brake mounts… now as far as I can find, there isn't a modern fork that fits these criteria?

So… I was wondering (perhaps stupidly!) would it be possible to buy a new fork and then either:

A) Add v-brake mounts to it (welding?) or
B) Have new legs/lowers fabricated for it by an engineering shop or somesuch?

Or, can anyone suggest a suitable fork for me instead?

cheers 🙂

What travel? Some White Bros forks have v mounts on.
Sent you an email BTW.

probably not, most lowers are magnesium and hence will be a bugger to attach stuff to.

Well seeing as you are a BowTi rider:
Parafork[/url]
German-A

looking for around 80-100mm travel… didn't think of White Brothers, just had a look at their site and the Magic 80 does come with v-mounts, though the A2C is 457mm… not entirely sure what the Bow-ti was designed around TBH, the current fork is a Marzocchi Bomber Z1 (Super Fly) that's 433mm

improvements …..

forks went downhill since the forks that are on it ….. youll only ruin the bike

How about DT? If they are still the same size lowers as when they were Pace, they used to do clamp on bosses.

Hmmm… that German-A fits my penchant for being 'different' 😆 wonder what the pricing is like?

forks went downhill since the forks that are on it ….. you'll only ruin the bike

You think? TBH, I haven't ridden the Bombers, they're back in their box and will probably be sold, I think they're a bit too garish with their silver and gold colour scheme, plus I reckon they'll be rather flexy (though on a Bow-ti, that's not really such an issue!)

How about DT? If they are still the same size lowers as when they were Pace, they used to do clamp on bosses.

Didn't think about clamp on bosses either… I guess I could get these made up for any fork right?

you havnt ridden the z1s….

jesus – youll be getting ride of one of the best forks ever made

seriously if i still had my heckler id have had them in a shot.

are you serious you think they will be flexy and yet are going to put some Dt forks on …..

seriously go ride the things – if needs be paint them but honestly i seriously doubt you will get anything that will match them and be suitable for the bike !

are we talking about the same fork? There's no way these'd suit a Heckler, would they?? 65mm travel, 30mm stanchions…

Actually, just realised these are Super Fly Z2's…

psychle, the original Z1 was (and may be) the most enjoyable fork. It's like going back to your late teen years for sex.

SID Race at 80mm?

http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/25276/RockShox_SID_Race_100_Forks_2010

my heckler was a 98

I have some Rebas that are 80mm travel and have V mounts. Rebas are a great fork IMO. I'm sure a few will agree. Mine are 08.

Bare in mind when the guy built up that bike it was quite obviously the best of what was availiable, and in my opinion it needs nothing but a little riding… Garish suits it perfectly, I am not really into retro bikes too much, but your Bow Ti is just lovely.

Is changing for changes sake, or the search of the pefect geometry really going to make much difference to its ride?

It is yours though, so do what you like and sod the rest…

Have you seen flamejobs polished Marz forks?

Hold on I have had an idea, instead of changing the lowers, could you use the uppers from a later 100mm set of Bombers? It wont increase your travel but you might be able to increase the AC and keep the look exactly how it is????

The stanchions on those forks are clamped into the crown rather than sweated in (interference fit), you could if you was willing to spend a bit of cash even just use the stanchions from a 100mm set of forks and keep the steerer and crown and everything else from the original..

Not really looking to increase the AC or fiddle the geometry, the idea behind wanting to change the fork is more that A) I don't really like the look that much (though they do suit the wheelset it has to be said!) and B) I just feel (perhaps wrongly it seems?) that a more modern fork will perform better (especially considering I've swapped the rear Alps 5 shock for a new RP23)…

Bare in mind when the guy built up that bike it was quite obviously the best of what was available

I know… but that also means that some of these retro parts are now potentially worth decent money (since they're brand new etc), which makes me a bit reluctant to use them (perhaps being silly here, but there you go). I'm going to ride the bike, but I'm swapping a few of the bits, these being:

1) Avid Arch Supremes are being changed to Avid Ultimates (still v-brake)
2) The current wheelset I'll keep for pimping, but I've also sourced a set of lightly used 2008 Crossmax SL's
3) Changing the rear mech and shifters to XO.
4) I've also sourced an Ibis titanium stem for it to replace the green Ringle Zooka stem (means running a flat bar, but that's OK)

I'll use the lovely Cook Brothers crankset, they suit the bike nicely… As for the fork, maybe I'll hang onto it, again for pimping days to match the CK wheelset, but I think I'd prefer to have a different for for general use…

The White Brothers look pretty good, as do the SID Race… any thoughts on how they'd compare?

Post a pic of the whole bike again for me please…

Glad you decided to ride it instead of look at it. 🙂

I've also got a lovely Kent Eriksen 'sweetpost' to treat it with as well 🙂

Personally, I think the bright colours of the shifters, dérailleur and fork are a bit too much, they detract from the frame a bit?

How to ruin a lovely bike in 5 easy steps …….

at least its being ridden i guess….

I like it but then I am a gawdy Essex bloke… 🙂

I would however lose the red details if it were me, 1 colour too many.

If you modernising the ride, why not a front disc on you new modern fork? Pretty sure K oro's came in a polished alloy look that would suit it.

But keep all the bits, I would hazzard a guess at some stage you would regret not being able to return it to how it looks now.

I don't really go in for the nostalgia of retro, even with the frame I bought it because I've always liked it's unusualness and it's design features, it's a work of bike art in some ways. I'm happy to run more modern bits on it, not just keep it period correct for the sake of it.

How to ruin a lovely bike in 5 easy steps …….

I don't think it'll 'ruin' it… I'm not making permanent changes, just fiddling with the look… now, if I was getting disc tabs added then you might have an argument 😉

If your modernising the ride, why not a front disc on you new modern fork? Pretty sure K oro's came in a polished alloy look that would suit it

Don't really want to run disc on the front and V's on the back… non-matching levers would be strange as well no?

That bikes fantastic as it is instead of fannying about changing it just ride it 🙂

Don't really want to run disc on the front and V's on the back… non-matching levers would be strange as well no?

Avid BB7 or whatever the cable operated disc is called, then run the same levers…

To be honest I am with the others, just ride it..

Nowt wrong with disc front and v back.. Gives you some "Oh shiiii.." power when you need it.
Asymmetric clobber on the bars just gives a kind of Doc Emmett Brown feel.

Thanks for all the input chaps… after a bit of googling etc, I think I've made a decision 🙂 A set of White Brothers Magic 80's looks like the way to go (to me anyhow!):

£520 from Tredz, not too bad I guess…

don't. just don't.

i honestly don't get this at all. if you're buying a retro bike, run it retro or hang it on a wall to be a retro show piece.
if you're buying it to split off the bits worth money to collectors then do that.

i can't understand the idea of getting a retro bike, then trying to upgrade it with splashes of new but similar technology… it will still ride like an older/flexy/outdated bike, but essentially wont be.

what's the point? just buy a cheap newer bike and ride that, then hang this on the wall!

I reccomend a much bigger mortgage to sort out your disposable cash problem.. 🙂

quite.

Have to say I agree with tracknicko, unless it genuinely rides well.

Yes your problems are ones which I wish I had. Having all that money to spoil a retro bike must be hard!

Its obvious you are wanting this bike to look good with all your references to 'pimping' etc. The way to improve this bike is to buy classic parts for it, The titanium stem would look good and fit well with it. Why not stick a titanium seatpost, and bars on it? I think the crank looks out of place on it and silver middleburn crank would look much better. Why not just use the good bits which you seem to want to sell or take off. like the Avid V brakes, CK wheels and the very nice forks which look in keeping with the age of the bike. It just seems to me that all the good stuff you want to take off it and replace with things that will make it look like crusty the clowns bike.

If you plane on using the bike for riding then the Marz forks fitted will be way more reliable than the White Borthers ones and not make it look like you should be juggling on it while riding down the street

Sorry if it sounds arsey but you are abviously looking for some kind of solace by posting all this up and I doubt you will get it on here lol. I just think this project is the biggest paradox ever!

Z2s suit the bike. However I do have a friend who is selling some of the white brothers…

ferrariby40(at)hotmail(dot)com if you're interested

I'm kind of inspired by this build, though definitely a bit more modern than what I'm looking to do:

This is quite nice as well, more in keeping with my idea:

i can't understand the idea of getting a retro bike, then trying to upgrade it with splashes of new but similar technology… it will still ride like an older/flexy/outdated bike, but essentially wont be.

You can still get a brand new Bow-ti, custom made by John Castellano to exactly the same spec as the original…

so to me it's more like a Jones or something like that… and the original frame is still highly sought after for and used for 'modern' builds, so it's not like I'm trying to make an old outdated frame ride like a modern bike (I don't think?)

Its obvious you are wanting this bike to look good with all your references to 'pimping' etc. The way to improve this bike is to buy classic parts for it

Yep, I want it to look good, I'm pretty vain like that 😳 . And yes, I can kind of afford to splash out for it (to a point). Re. Ti finishing bits, I've bought a retro Ibis Ti stem and a nice Kent Eriksen Ti seatpost as well, missed out on a retro Ibis Ti ancotech flat bar which was a shame!

Sorry if it sounds arsey but you are abviously looking for some kind of solace by posting all this up and I doubt you will get it on here lol. I just think this project is the biggest paradox ever!

Doesn't sound arsey, and I know STW and Retrobike aren't the place to go if you're looking for 'solace' or agreement 😉 Anything retro/classic is always going to polarise opinion on many fronts (whether the object is worth owning in the first place, whether you should keep it 'retro' or modify/improve it etc etc)

Anyhoo… Looking around, I think mine is a later model (from 1998-9 I think), so it was built for 100mm forks, but I do need to confirm this with Ibis (have emailed the frame number to check, but Scot Nicol's records are apparently a bit sketchy due to the company being sold and going bust prior to being resurrected).

I have to say its a work of art the frame though. Quite a lot of welds, angles and different tube sizes etc. With the price of Titanium and the high price of niche labour these days I'm wonmdering how much that John Castellano copy above cost. Any idea?

I reckon the RS sids would be a nice fork for it. If you must have the latest fork. Did you sell the USA stipe ESP 9 stuff from it in the end?

Not my cup of tea at all.

If i had the money you had i wouldn't be worrying about getting some crappy short travel forks… i'd be wondering which 3 bikes i was gonna buy to replace the ibis i just sold.

I'm wondering how much that John Castellano copy above cost. Any idea?

I think I remember seeing a price mentioned (somewhere on the interweb) of something like USD$6000, but could be very wrong on that! Either way, it'd be rather expensive I'm sure!

Did you sell the USA stripe ESP 9 stuff from it in the end?

Posted a couple of speculative 'for sales' (mtbr.com and on here) but not sold as yet… price is certainly an issue, I'm probably asking too much for them for a general punter to purchase, and it's a long-shot that the few genuine potential buyers would actually see the ad! Thinking about popping them on Ebay but with a healthy reserve…

Yeah ebay international give them the largest platform to sell something which is rather niche by modern MTB standards. Only takes one person looking for some though!