Into the great wide open

Have picked up a nice Tokyo Fixed Wide Open frame from @DanM, it's my first steel bike. Here it is previously built up - https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/388812/

Hoping to transplant a lot of parts from another bike I own, but need an affordable long-reach fork to match the frame. I don't know of too many long-reach rim brake, 1-1/8", carbon forks with decent clearance (~32 mm bare or 28 with guards), so would greatly value some suggestions. I believe that the ITM Visia is a candidate but I'm not confident I could pick the right generation or permutation of it.

Also if anyone has a set of Shimano R65os going spare, please get in touch!

Don't know anything about steel frames but it looks nice.

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here for this, but with silly bougie choice parts that don’t belong on a commuter…

The donor bike is a 2016ish CAAD10 Ultegra with Kinlin XR31 wheels, so it will be upper-ish but not too fancy I suppose.

Shopping list:

• Fork: The search continues. I feel like I'm digging deep into audax bike history to try to even come up with suitable model names. Have had to use the Internet Wayback Machine more than once.
  
• Brakes: Shimano BR-R650s are meant to be the best of the best, when it comes clearance and stopping power. They're far less accessible than the much cheaper and similar R451s, but this bike will be used in hilly terrain so I'm keen to invest in the brakes.
  
• Bottom bracket: finally I can be free of BB30. Don't know anything about BBs so I'm assuming I can just get a standard BSA Shimano one for cheap. Will probably need to buy a special tool too.
  
• Chain set: Thinking Ultegra here. The groupset is 6800, and as I've seen from @ojwithbits recent FS thread there are some exciting combustion features on the 6800 cranks. Not sure if I can find some un-recalled ones. Will be going compact. Have no idea about crank lengths.
  
• Tyres: haven't actually thought too much about these, aside from wanting them to be wide. The CAAD has 25s and even run tubeless at low pressures was a very uncomfortable ride on the rural roads it found itself on. Kind of curious about the Jack Brown Mile Munchers in 30 mm. Failing that, have always been a fan of Conti 4 Seasons. Maybe these tyres are overly robust for country roads where the chances of a puncture are pretty low in my experience.
  
• Cables and outers: always been too scared to try any of this stuff but am going to have to face that fear.
  

Got brakes.

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Got bottom bracket.

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But do I have a fork?

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As I've detailed before, finding a fork for this bike has been a bit of a journey. I'm aiming to fit 32 mm tyres on this bike, as this is what the frame allows for. I visited Condor to see if they had any old stock of their winter caliper fork, but they didn't. What I did see though was their Fratello audax bike built up, which had a very appealing fork on it. The specs state 28 mm clearance but it looks like it will comfortably do more.

Unfortunately £300 for a fork is way out of my budget. The helpful man in the shop suggested that I try contacting Spa Cycles since they were specialists in touring bikes. I'd already been offered a Spa fork on here by someone who had managed to fit 32 mm tyres, but that offer had been withdrawn over concerns about damage to the fork.

So I contacted Spa cycles to see if they had any old stock of their Audax fork lying around, despite it being out of stock. As it turns out they had one with a few minor blemishes on it that they would sell me for cheap. That was lucky because they said the next shipment of forks wasn't due for months. I have to say John at Spa Cycles was very helpful and nice to deal with.

The fork arrived yesterday and I was excited to try it out. I took the front wheel off my rim brake commuter, and put it on. Hmm. Even with these 25c tyres (Mich pro4) there wasn't tons of space. And was I imagining things or was the spacing uneven?!

I got out some calipers and measured the width of the tyre. It was around 26 mm. Notably, the rim's internal width is 15 mm, versus the 19 mm rims to be taken from the donor bike. So in theory the tyre would be even wider on those wheels.

Further testing was needed, so I swapped on a pair of 32c Conti Ultra Sports. There was definitely something wrong. The tyre would clear the fork by 1-2 mm on the left, and rub on the right.

I tried reversing the wheel to see if it was a wonky wheel rather than a crooked fork. Ultimately I was too vexed by the rubbing at all that I couldn't remember which side was which. Taking photos wasn't a huge help because it's very difficult to photograph tyre clearance while trying to hand-hold a fork completely straight-on to the camera. So I don't have a conclusion on this, and should probably try it again.

What I will say though is that the wheel I was using was a low-end Shimano wheel with only 16 spokes, which has been used for a few years on my commuter, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was out of true. On the other hand, it seems impossible to expect a 32 mm tyre to fit on 19 mm internal rims, if space is this much of an issue with 15 mm. In all likelihood, I'm stuck with 28 mm tyres if I'm to use this fork. I'm not sure if I should try to return it, or admit defeat at this point.

The clearance issue stems from the shape around the crown area, where there is extra space carved out for a mudguard above the tyre, but these protrusions narrowing it on either side. The Condor fork by contrast has a smooth bowed shape.

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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326115519596

Clearance apparently 25 with guard but might be conservative

On tyre choice - worth saying a steel bike will ride far more comfortably than an alu race bike like a CAAD10 as the frame will be so much more compliant - so you might not need to go super wide on tyres.

Having said that these ridley forks look fairly wide - not long drop nor mudguards but fairly cheap...

[https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305370496021]

mask off the metal and spray with black car paint and these would look good

or these? [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305591941666]

or these? [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266259983424]

could theoretically fit a rim brake caliper to this, according to the q&a

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/forks/evo-carbon-iso-disc-audax-fork-700c-1-18-ahead-a613d/

Interested in your search for a fork. I have a Wide Open with steel fork and fancy trying it with a carbon fork but definitely want to run 32mm

Better suited to an integrated headset frame but this is a great price if there's enough steerer for you?

Frame would look lovely with a steel fork.

Just chucking ideas out there, but what about something like this? What axle to crown do you need? (I think there's a brake hole there)

Could even run a front disc wheel with an Avid BB7 or even better TRP HY/RD. Would be better all weather braking performance.

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Thanks for the responses everyone. I have to admit my motivation on this project absolutely cratered after the Spa fork turned out not to be the solution. The fork is still lying on the floor in a cardboard box because I haven't built up the will to email them again and beg to return it. Additionally I spent a couple of weeks messaging someone on here about buying some Ultegra cranks off them and could never manage to pin them down to an actual meeting time, so have given up on that too. I'm supposed to be leaving the country with this bike half-assembled in two weeks' time, and it's not looking good.

I did have a realization though, which is that the Condor forked I linked to above is not actually the one used on the Fratello, because it doesn't have mudguard eyelets. So it may be a specific fork for the Fratello that isn't sold separately.

@Jome Aside from not knowing anything about steel forks I'm not necessarily opposed to them. But would like to stick with the same brakes front and rear, so a frankenstein fork setup doesn't suit. Same goes for the fork @TvH mentioned, it might work but wouldn't look right!

@jono84 Think I need something like 27 cm for the size of this frame. Thanks for the pointer though.

@T_Unit I'm basically crossing my fingers and hoping for a cheap Fratello F+F to come up somewhere, that I can salvage the fork from... wish me luck! This seller offered me the whole bike for £200 cash but have avoided the temptation https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156248843750

@DanM @PhilDAS Thanks for the links, don't think I would be buying any of those with confidence that they would fit or look right haha.

Do you know what axle to crown measurement you need?

The fork I linked has a drilled brake hole so may work (forget the disc mount) - it's 389mm a-c.

That Fratello looks like a decent deal though, if it has enough steerer.

The fork on the fratellos is a condor pioggia. If you're really keen on that fork you should just give condor a ring and see what they have or could recommend, better still go in person if you're in London.
Other notable "mid-reach" rim brake forks would be the whiskey no.7 rd+ (which I think were used on all city Mr. Pinks). The new ritchey wcs also has larger clearance 30ish? Both these are quite expensive.
Could also run a larger tyre in the rear and smaller at front? Most of the comfort will come from the rear tyre anyway. Can always have thicker bar tape.

Also someone was selling some kinesis dc07 forks in classifieds which seems to fit the bill. Could try looking for another pair or putting up a wanted ad for something similar?

A couple of options for you - keen to see this get built!

[https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235140773139]

[https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196420765107]

Thanks Dan, I did consider those two but I fear they will have similar issues to the Spa fork in that they narrow right at the top.

I did speak with Condor in the shop, they weren't able to sell me one unfortunately.

Can you use a set of Surly Steamroller forks for this?

I may have a couple of forks in the garage that tick your boxes, from memory both clear 28 but not sure beyond that. I’ll attempt to find out later.

Columbus Carve in great condition with @270ish steerer and clears 28 with loads of room, I should have the ability to check with a 32 on a wide rim later today/tomorrow. Currently fitted with standard drop calliper. Happy to remove and give exact steerer measurement and hopefully find a sticker with rake if this is of any interest?

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