carbon forks

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by tmjoe
is there any advantege to carbon forks .. or do they just look cool?:p

thanks
tmjoe

There are some shock absorption benefits I'm told. I can't say I'm the best control case as I went from a chromoly bike with steel forks to an aluminium bike with carbon and the difference in ride/handling is so great as to be night and day. They're not rock-shox comfortable, but I don't seem to be jarred by the bumps quite so much. But I might be looking at it through rose-coloured glasses due to the frame improvement as well. 🙂

There is a huge advantage in carbon forks. I just got some in place of my old ChroMo one a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I thought I'd try it as I'd heard so much. Believe me it's like heaven. For starts there's a HUGE weight difference. Secondly it makes the front end so much stiffer and control is so much more responsive. I wouldn't exactly say that there's any shock absorption as such however I guess there is a little dampening effect. Over about a hundred km (60mile) ride the biggest bonuses as I mentioned are weight, stiffness and responsiveness. Therefore I'm not so worn out in the upper body from fighting the front end for 3 hrs. I guess it's a bit like having power steering for the first time.

i recently switched from an all steel frame to an alum. frame/
carbon fork setup-i really thought the "vibration dampening"
i had heard of would of been all hype until i was quite surprised to find the ride quality much more smooth

Is there any difference in a curved carbon fork, and one like mine which is straight. To me, a curved one would use more of the capabilities of carbon than my straight blade.

I ride a Vortex with an Ouzo all carbon fork and an old steel DeRosa with a steel DeRosa fork. To be honest, I haven't noticed much of a difference with respect to vibration damping.