Are Carbon forks with aluminium steerers safe?

Are Carbon forks with aluminium steerers safe?.....Just bought a second hand Langster from someone who does not know its history....so i don't know if was crashed...frame has no dings or dents....normal scratches.....so quandary [a] Keep the forks [b] replace with another set of carbon forks but all i could afford if the ones with Al steerers....or [c] Replace it with a steel fork

you would have exactly the same issue with a steel fork - has it been crashed, is it safe (also has it rusted inside/vs aluminium fatigue)

Test it..

nose manual - YouTube

you would have exactly the same issue with a steel fork - has it been crashed, is it safe (also has it rusted inside/vs aluminium fatigue)

But is it the same issue?...For CF you need an X-ray to check post crash....and steel forks have a greater longevity and do give you some notice of failure i believe....but wonder if it is paranoid fear...read articles on the net...CTC etc and fear has set in...catastrophic cf fork failure ....i was thinking of getting a pair of new steel forks.....or is that a cop out...has any one on the forum suffered such a fork failure with CF?....but as i don't know the history of my present forks should i replace those now?...be it steel or CF.

thread on ignore

thread on ignore

????? As you please!

So you are paranoid about the forks because you don't know the history.. Why not be paranoid about the frame then? You could have just bought a new bike.

Or, if there doesn't seem to be anything visibly wrong with neither frame nor fork, just ride the damn thing!

So you are paranoid about the forks because you don't know the history.. Why not be paranoid about the frame then? You could have just bought a new bike.

Or, if there doesn't seem to be anything visibly wrong with neither frame nor fork, just ride the damn thing!

Point taken....it is psychological...frame failure is something i don't expec [yet see below] but carbon fork failure is more of a perceived possibility....it is a case of overcoming fear....made worse by a serious crash in 2008...and this is my return to riding fixed....when ironically my frame was toasted and the CF fork looked untouched....so i suppose this is a last hang up from my crash....but your advice is something my mother would have said...'shut up and get on with it!'...Thanks

Your Carbon forks are probably going to outlive your aluminium frame. Carbon Fibre is pretty strong stuff, never understood the negative thoughts on it. If it wasn't safe they wouldn't build planes out of it.

Sure it fatigues and brakes, so does everything, even the body you live in...

I slightly favour carbon forks with ally steerers- but that's just a small eccentricity on my part.

Compared to carbon steerer forks, they are usually slightly stiffer (especially if you are towards the top end of allowed spacer stack), slightly cheaper, slightly more robust in the face of gorilla mechanics- immune to an over tightened carbon bung or overtightened stem, slightly heavier, more prone to coming unglued at the crown (a fairly benign failure that manifests itself as a bit of play first), immune shearing just about the crown, as carbon does occasionally (when smashed in transit for example).

That's about all I can add.....

Your Carbon forks are probably going to outlive your aluminium frame. Carbon Fibre is pretty strong stuff, never understood the negative thoughts on it. If it wasn't safe they wouldn't build planes out of it.

Sure it fatigues and brakes, so does everything, even the body you live in...

The body i am in is decline....the end is not quite nigh!

I slightly favour carbon forks with ally steerers- but that's just a small eccentricity on my part.

Compared to carbon steerer forks, they are usually slightly stiffer (especially if you are towards the top end of allowed spacer stack), slightly cheaper, slightly more robust in the face of gorilla mechanics- immune to an over tightened carbon bung or overtightened stem, slightly heavier, more prone to coming unglued at the crown (a fairly benign failure that manifests itself as a bit of play first), immune shearing just about the crown, as carbon does occasionally (when smashed in transit for example).

That's about all I can add.....

I find your comments reassuring.....thanks

...read articles on the net...CTC etc

lots of people on the CTC forum are opposed to carbon on almost religious grounds.

if they accepted a carbon fork is fine, then maybe a carbon frame is okay too. their whole world would collapse. ...maybe the dawes galaxy is not the greatest bike in the world?

The CTC - where the quality of the bike is measured by it's spacer stack and amount of braze-ons.

can we not export scolbe there? he would be a god on that forum

I thought you had this thread on ignore?

Could not resist a peek.

can we not export scolbe there? he would be a god on that forum

Not convinced, he would be a novice amongst that company and his bikes would get ridiculed for being too modern and sporty.

Get some cheap Chinese carbon forks
I got a set from ebay for £45.

I have 3 bikes which have carbon forks with alu steerers. A roadie I ride very very fast, a 29er I ride on big rocks, and a commuter I ride daily and often heavily loaded. I am not dead. As Sherrit points out, they resist ape fisted mechanics better. So are less likely to have damaged steerers from over tightening, use of wrong bung etc.

At first I was scared of carbon forks with Aluminum steerers. Rode that, no problem.

Then I was scared of full carbon forks, but after more than a year of cyclocross abuse, mine isn't showing any wear.

I'd get it inspected by a professional, and then ride the shit outta it.