You are reading a single comment by @Dutch_Cheese and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Dutch_Cheese
I might have an explanation why good track forks may look like they were involved in an accident.
Most of the times, fork blades are supplied from the factory with a rake of say 35 to 40 mm.
The frame builder has to bend the blades (or complete forks after brazing) to the correct rake.
Road forks have usually a larger rake and the jigs for bending are made for increasing the rake.
However, a track fork has a rake like 20 to 25mm, so it has to be bent backwards, if it's made with the fork blades described above.
Most of the times, frame builders to not have a proper jig to do that.
So, instead of straightening the curve of the blades a bit out to reduce the rake, the blades are bent a bit backwards in the upper regions, just below the fork crown.
If they would have started with straight blades or used a very good bending tool (jig), it may have looks just a very littlebit better.