Getting a bit confused with all my wheel sizes etc at the moment.

Hoping to pick up a Kaffenback frame when they come back in stock, but not sure what to do about forks. I’ll be running discs and transferring most of the kit over from a drop bar’ed Inbred, obviously I’ll need some new wheels.

Regarding forks, the Kaffenback forks state they are 400mm axle to crown. My current rigid (26’er) Inbred forks are 440mm axle to crown. Can that be right? The 26″ forks are longer? With that in mind, presumably I can run my existing forks on the Kaffenback, with big wheels?

I appreciate the extra 4cm is going to slacken off the geometry of the bike a tiny bit. Not enough to ruin it though, do you reckon? The bike will mainly be used for commuting, mincing about, occasional bit of road riding here and there…

Which brings me onto wheels. I know this has probably been done to death, but 700c & 29″ rims are essentially the same, right? I can take a road slick and stick it on a 29’er rim? Needing basically a road wheel but with discs, I’m confused at to which sections of wiggle/CRC etc I should be looking at for wheels – MTB or road.

Another option would be to rebuild the current Inbred’s hubs onto new rims and spokes. Again, 29’er rims? 700c rims? Doesn’t matter?

Sorry for all the questions, all this crossover and convergence of tech has me well confused!!

IF you want to use narrow road tires most 29er rims will probably be too wide. There’s not that much choice in terms of 700C disc rims – I guess cyclocross is the most likely application for them.

Not sure about the forks sorry.

I did wonder about rim width, but then I looked at some road rims on CRC that were 16 and 19mm wide. An MTB Mavic 117, 317 etc is 17mm wide. Crudely holding a ruler against a crappy old road bike in the office here suggest the rims on that (with 25c slick tyres) are about 15-18ish mm.

So I’m hoping rim width might not be an issue. Could be wrong though.

I’m gonna go research the kit used on things like the Croix De Fer and Charge Filter…

I appreciate the extra 4cm is going to slacken off the geometry of the bike a tiny bit. Not enough to ruin it though, do you reckon? The bike will mainly be used for commuting, mincing about, occasional bit of road riding here and there…

It will be terrible. Don’t do it.

I did wonder about rim width, but then I looked at some road rims on CRC that were 16 and 19mm wide. An MTB Mavic 117, 317 etc is 17mm wide. Crudely holding a ruler against a crappy old road bike in the office here suggest the rims on that (with 25c slick tyres) are about 15-18ish mm.

You have to be careful when looking at rim widths – it’s often not clear which measurement they are referring to. Not saying you’re wrong, but sometimes they seem to give the internal width and sometimes not.

I think you’d probably get away with it, but you might have a job getting some tires on and off.

Fair enough. Only £40 for a set of Kaffenback forks anyway. Thanks

Kaffs are ace mine is 10 years old and I still love it but alas the forks are horrable
I have fitted project 2 forks to mine, but if I was going to replace the forks now I would get some Cotic forks which are realy nice and are at a £30 premium

https://www.cotic.co.uk/order/forks/

I fitted some bog standard road carbon forks to mine. Bog standard road wheels too, ultegra I think.
All fine.

Hmm, the Cotic forks look nice. I’m not fussy really, just need any old 700c forks that have disc mounts.

Just looked at some 700c Project Two forks that are 440mm axle to crown – exactly the same length as my On One rigid forks that I was told would be useless…

“Any old fork” will make or ruin the naff

I have some Kinesis DC19s on mine (new swap out frame). I also have a RoadRat with 26″ (425mm a-c) forks and 29″ wheels, which rides fine. On paper the Rat and the Kaffenback aren’t such different beasties I don’t think?

Rims – if you’re going to run a wider tyre (25mm plus), then the Mavic TN17 rims look a good bet I reckon.

Someone from this forum put a 29er fork on a Pompino (same geometry as Kaffenback). I think he thought that the handling was fine, but I don’t think I’d have liked it… http://blog.unrealcycles.com/2009/08/pimpy-pompino.html

I’m using Halo Aerotrack rims which have made bombproof wheels even with skinny Sapim Laser DB spokes.

The Pompetamine disc fork has been good for me, too, once filed down a bit to work with my hub. Tough but not too harsh. Stands up to loads of abuse!

Cheers, lots of useful suggestions here. The Kinesis forks look nice, but a bit pricey and blingy for a commuter/pub/occasional tourer bike.

Either the standard Kaffenback fork or the Cotic fork look like the sensible choices. Surly do some nice looking 700c disc forks too but they’re over double the price.

Just gotta wait for Kaffenbacks to come back in stock now…

“Any old fork” will make or ruin the naff

My point was, as long as it’s the right size/length, I’m not fussy on colour, brand and so on.

Out of interest, what would be the difference between a Kaffenback and, say, a 29er inbred? Fitted with midge flared drops.

This is my current mincing about/commuting/pub bike:

It very occasionaly does a bit of offroad but mainly stays on paths, and I’d like to run bigger wheels. Been looking at the Kaffenbacks, but wondering if something like this would be more versatile:

with the option to run fatter tyres when the mood takes me, but presumably still pretty quick with some cross/town/road type tyres on?

Thoughts welcome!