Fork crowns for round blades?

I'm in the planning stages of a frame.

Can anyone point me toward options for round bladed forks? I can only find

at ceeway.

Should I just sod it and use oval blades? In truth, I like the look of round blades, and the lateral stiffness is probably just an excuse for me.

This is for a bike that I want pretty stiff, especially laterally. However (it goes without saying) it needs to be vertically compliant. [/forum c. winter 2007]

what style are you thinking?
maybe get them fabricated if you want them really special?

Have you looked at these sites?

http://www.henryjames.com/
http://www.cycle-frames.com/bicycle-frame-tubing/
http://www.bikelugs.com/

A interesting website.

http://modikoso.com/nav/documents/websitecontents/websitecontent.htm

not a lot of choice out there from what I can tell so far.

This guy had these fabricated, is this the sort of thing you mean?

@tommy - thanks for the James Morikawa link ..... bookmarked.

Round blades are the sex. Fact.

Most of them seem to be columbus tubing, so looking at various columbus framesets/forks may give you some ideas for crowns.

You could indeed try making your own via lost wax casting.

not a lot of choice out there from what I can tell so far.

This guy had these fabricated, is this the sort of thing you mean?

now that is a proper twin plate crown

+1 lovely

http://www.cycle-frames.com/bicycle-frame-tubing/SILVA-TRACK-FOR-24mm-ROUND-BLADES.html

[URL="http://www.cycle-frames.com/bicycle-frame-tubing/images/P/EVR_FC_SIL_TRK-09.jpg"][/URL]

Or try to find an old (damaged?) fork and separate the crown.

Cheers Tommy, not seen the Henry James ones.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell the Pacenti ones (bikelugs.com) are for oval blades.

what style are you thinking?
maybe get them fabricated if you want them really special?

Hmmm....

Roadish geom, tarck ends, gaurds, trad shape, maybe half-filed off lugs, maybe just fillet. Short rear centre, longer front centre for minimal/no overlap... thinking maybe a curved seatpost.

Oooh that crown is nice. Too retro for this actually.

Hmm Dutch yeah the Silva one is OK, again a bit retro, not really that keen on flat crown. Looks like a steamroller's fork. Which is no bad thing, in itself.

The broken fork idea is nice! Could be a lot of work though.

Think I might have to just go with oval blades.

Please tell me you're spending some quality time with Mr DY!

The broken fork idea is nice! Could be a lot of work though.

Finding a bent fork can be quite easy.
When you can brake a frame / fork, it's not too difficult to separate the crown.
If you're lucky, the steerer tube has the right length / is still okay, so you can leave that in place.

My own fork has round blades and has a crown with a bit sloping shoulders.
Think it's a Cinelli, but I'm not sure. May be hard to get, because Cinelli doesn't make this stuff any longer.

not a lot of choice out there from what I can tell so far.

This guy had these fabricated, is this the sort of thing you mean?

who makes this?

It's a one-off.

Thanks Dutch.

Please tell me you're spending some quality time with Mr DY!

Just saw this.

No. :(

why round blades??

they don't ride particularly well on the road

Yeah, I know I know. It's bollocks of me, I said that in my OP.

I'm happy to use oval blades, in the end.

Interested to know what the 'science bit' is on that though? I'm under the impression roand blades have less lateral flex than oval.. why is lateral flex better for the road?

They are not as good as oval blades under braking. The rest of the science I'll leave up to the Knobs who think they know all about it, I've ridden both, of differing tubesets, and the round blades ain't as nice on the road as the oval.

If the diameter of a round blade is equal to that of the minor axis then the latteral flex will be approximately the same but the for and aft flex will be greater. By the same token if the diameter is equal to the magor axis the lateral flex will be less.

My guess is that on a track frame due to the nice smooth surface + no front brake you do not need the for and aft stiffness the same so the diameter of the round blade is closer to that of the minor axis rather than than major one. This may well be incorrect though, I'm just throwing it out there.

Thanks RPM

Cool, answer makes perfecct sense RPM thanks for that.

Thread ends here.

They are not as good as oval blades under braking. The rest of the science I'll leave up to the Knobs who think they know all about it, I've ridden both, of differing tubesets, and the round blades ain't as nice on the road as the oval.

Yep, round blades shudder under braking. But they do look lovely.

They are not as good as oval blades under braking.

His examples were undrilled. You can't clamp a front brake to round forks either, so braking isn't an issue.

yeah man

I had a Haden Europa Crown put on Columbus SL Round Blades in 1981.
Liked the look of the round blades and the Haden, but would liked a semi-sloping that was made for round blades.
My only choice of a road crowm was the Cinelli Full Sloping?