Can you, lovely folk, please share some experience on touring with carbon forks?
TLDR of the dilemma at the end.
I am considering new bike that should be "all rounder" gravel- i am generally riding 70% pavement and 30% off road. I am also preparing for 7 day / 650 km tour through Alpe Adria to Grado, Italy with 4200m uphill.
This is my second tour lasting more than an overnighter. The other trip was also sleeping at hostels, so no need to carry camping stuff.
The bike is steel Author Ronin– i love the bike, how it looks, the components and the amount of attachment points. I will only swap the cassette from 36T to 42T.
But it is a bit heavier – around 12kg. I ignored this for a long time, and really would not mind if this bike would be used only for my local rides on flats.
But as i am gathering gear like tent, sleeping mat etc I found myself "freaking" about grams and generally being a weight wienie, WHILE i could drop around 1,5-2kg from the bike itself. Just by going with something made from Alu and carbon fork. (i don't have this bike picked, something from decathlon or cannodale maybe)
I am worried those extra steel kg´s will hinder the hill progress, especially there is one day with almost 70km going up hill of 1-2% incline, with last 10km of around 7-8% incline. There are around 3 uphill sections of various lengst (none is longer than 10km)
I really like the Author is a steel bike.
But I also don't have any experience with carbon- isn't it fragile? I heard they can crack and then snap abruptly, which especially on a front fork can be quite risky. (my price range is around 1200€ for the bike)
I am just worried about the carbon fork snapping on me or not lasting long enough. Or it needing me, to be much more careful with it (i like to ride bikes for fun, not pampering them)
The other overall gear weight should be at 10kg max (hoping to keep it under 8kg- sleeping system is 2,5kg). I plan to train hills + loose some of my body weight before the trip too.
What would you do?
TLDR: Buying a new bike for general riding, few overnighters and one epic tour. Should I go with +2kg heavier steel bike? Or alu body + carbon fork? Worried about the fragility of carbon + like the steel more.
by Sofiner
4 Comments
I think steel disc brake forks are horrible. I personally ride a steel bike for lightweight touring and bikepacking and I just replaced the fork with carbon. I don’t mount anything to it, and the 1 kg of weight savings is pretty great.
The extra care needs to be taken on maintenance and assembly with carbon parts, but when riding I don’t baby them at all.
first thing that comes to mind is budget. carbon forks with rack mounts are pretty pricey and should be if you want them to be reliable.
Replace the cassette and crankset. I got a 11-40T cassette and a 22-36 Shimano Cues crankset on my GRX600 bike (Kona Swift Rove). It works great. I can spin up any hill Norway can throw at me.
Carbon forks are designed to be lightweight, flexible, and strong. They generally are not designed for carrying front panniers. So if you’re traveling hostel to hostel, and you don’t require front panniers, a carbon fork is a good trade off. I ride an aluminum cannondale with a carbon fork. The only weight up front is my handlebar bag.