Rigid fork dilemma for my weird 2-in-one-bike build

So I’ve built a kind of strange bike, a rigid steel hardtail which I switch between 700c x 45mm tyres for mixed road/gravelly type riding and a 29er front / 650b back for proper offroad stuff

This is it in mixed riding mode before I put some slightly skinnier tyres on:

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>So, the forks at the moment are Singular Swift’s, 470mm axle to crown with 55mm offset.</span>

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Assuming my calcs are correct this gives it a headangle of about 70</span><span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>deg with the 700c wheels on, and 69deg with the 29/650b set up</span>

But I’m contemplating putting some shorter forks on it that I managed to pick up cheap (Orange R8’s 450mm long with approx. 40mm offset), mostly to sharpen up the steering a bit and, to be honest, for aesthetic reasons… (20mm will increase the headangle by 1deg)

So my question is, will a 20mm shorter fork actually sharpen up the steering given the offset will be reduced so much? Or will I completely mess up the handling?

You’ve already got the forks, what’s the worst that could happen?

EDIT: (When I fitted rigid forks to my 26″ mtb a while ago I wasn’t entirely happy with the reduced axle-to-crown compared with the 100mm suspension forks but it seems just fine for what it’s used for, commutes, and light off-road).

It’ll be fine as long as you get a two foot long stem to sort those cables out

legometeorology

So my question is, will a 20mm shorter fork actually sharpen up the steering given the offset will be reduced so much? Or will I completely mess up the handling?

It’ll be different, but well within a range you can handle.

Anyone running a long suspension fork will have larger variations in front end geometry, and happening several times a minute.

Ha, yea, somehow I’ve normalised to the ridiculous cables, but the aesthetics of the obscene clearance on the forks when running a little 45mm tyre bothers me 🙂

It’s really the offset I was pondering the influence of. I realise 1 deg of head angle change isn’t going to make a world of difference, but 15mm offset may…

True, I could just fit them, but if someone had some insights it would save a fair bit of tinkering and I’ve tinkered far too much in recent months…

legometeorology

…True, I could just fit them, but if someone had some insights it would save a fair bit of tinkering and I’ve tinkered far too much in recent months…

I have put a 26er fork on a Scandal for gravel roads. I did work out the differences in trail etc before fitting, it was about 1º steeper and more trail – can’t remember the figure.

The reality was it worked perfectly fine, and the steeper head angle gives a nice sharp feel, but the lesser offset adds trail so it’s not twitchy.

I did use 2.35 Big Apple slicks though. You’ll find they are free rolling and you’ll appreciate the better braking and roadholding if you do that.

I don’t know how your narrower tyres will affect it in reality.

I’ve got the same fork with 700×48 and even 35’s… I got over the tyre gap fairly quickly. It’s less gap than with a sus fork in there just without the leg brace 😉

Of you’ve already got the other forks then maybe worth a try, but also think about the effect on bar height and whether you’re going stick another 20mm spacers under the stem on top of already quite a lot of spacers. That would disturb me way more than the crown clearance!!

All of which aside, crown clearance is the least of your worries in the looks department… Get those hoses sorted!!!!!

True, I could just fit them, but if someone had some insights it would save a fair bit of tinkering and I’ve tinkered far too much in recent months…

The theory will say it is different but as it is a 10 minute job the best thing is to just try it and any differences may not be noticeable, may be better, may be worse.   As others have said the biggest difference will probably be the 20mm lower bars increasing you saddle to bar drop which again may or may not be bad but you won’t know until you try it.

We all like different geo’s so you may find it more to your liking.  My current only bike is this one which is probably the shortest and sharpest angled (73.5) bike with 43c tyres on it and I love it on gravel and single track.  It is the antithesis of the long slack thing!

Thanks epicyclo, that looks very similar to the sort of thing I’ll end up with. I feel like I’ve seen pics from you of that bike next to some wild and wonderful looking tracks up in Scotland before.

As for the bar height, all should be good as I’m running those bars upside down at the moment so will just flip then, and then I can loose a spacer as well.

Damn this thread though, now I can’t help but find my eyes drawn to those damn brake hoses and the bike looks far worse than when I started…