Determining fork rake

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Hello all,

I've have an older steel colnago with a chrome fork. The fork appears
to have a crack in it and I'm looking to getting it replaced. I'm not
sure of the model of my colnago, but it's an early 80's model with a
126mm rear spacing if that helps. The chrome forks have quite a bit of
curve to them. Anyhow I would like to try and get a similar fork with
the same rake and was wondering how to measure it's rake ?

Thanks,

Ian in SanDiego

 

[Arthur Harris]

Ian wrote:
> I've have an older steel colnago with a chrome fork. The fork appears
> to have a crack in it and I'm looking to getting it replaced. I'm not
> sure of the model of my colnago, but it's an early 80's model with a
> 126mm rear spacing if that helps. The chrome forks have quite a bit of
> curve to them. Anyhow I would like to try and get a similar fork with
> the same rake and was wondering how to measure it's rake ?

For a lear about trail, fork offset, etc, see:
http://www.phred.org/~josh/bike/trail.html

If you run a staightedge along the steering axis, "rake" or fork offset is
the perpendicular distance measured from the steering axis to the center of
the hub.

That distance is usually in the range of 40-45mm for normal head angles.
More offset gives less trail and quicker steering for a given head angle. A
difference of a couple of mm isn't going to make much difference in
handling.

Art Harris