Steel dropout forks

[yopappamon]

Where can I find steel dropout suspension forks? Something reasonably priced, not necessarily cheap. Under $200

After an evening of searching the forum, all I'm came up with is these.

http://www.choppersus.com/store/product/996/Fork-Suspension-26%22-Silver/

Anyone have a review of these?

 

[dogman dan]

That's about it for steel suspension. Slightly longer travel ones can sometimes be found on low end Trek bikes. But they are not dampened in any way, and most are just 40 mm pogo sticks. They squat down 20 mm when you load up the bike, so really they have only 20 mm of usable travel.

They can be better than nothing though, for riding on streets with a horrible surface. I rode em for thousands of miles, since here we have huge heat cracks in the pavement that stick up 1-3" every 20 feet of every road in town that is not brand new. I found it worthwhile to spend the time to work out a good alloy fork to use with a front hub, using c washers and two torque arms. It's only a 1000 watt motor and controller. So far no cracks, but fitting the motor to the forks was not easy at all.

 

[yopappamon]

Are alloy forks safe enough? I'm building a Mongoose Blackcomb for a street commuter and was thinking of putting a 9c 6x10 rewired wye delta on the front. I won't be going off road or hopping curbs, just cruising up to maybe 30 mph on decent pavement.

My options are buy another new hub or buy a new set of forks and use the front hub I have.

 

[dogman dan]

I had to try several different forks to find one compatible with my 9c motor and torque arms, then do lots of filing on both the dropout depth, and I had to shorten the length of the shoulder on the axle. The addition of the thin washers made it too long causing the fork to bind. Once I got that all sorted out some c washers and torque arms from ebikes ca fixed me up for a perfect fit install. The forks haven't cracked because the perfect fit hasn't pried them open. Just nice even pressure from the washers. I only run 48v 20 amps, so torque has not been an issue.

I don't know the brand of forks I am using, just that they are cheaper ones in the DH category, so they are beefy enough to file on some. The forks I couldn't use were rockshocks dart II. They, and many other forks have an allen bolt on the bottom of the tube that interfered with the torque arm. So look for that first when choosing a fork.

It's been at least 6 months now with no problems. Most of the alloy fork problems come from not using c washers, or other issues of less than perfect fit. When tightening the nut, the washer applies a spreading force on the drops. Not using the inner washer on a 9c motor can also be a problem, since it has a narrow shoulder. And of course, big power is a problem. Even with steel forks and two torque arms, my first test of 72v 40 amps on another bike had the wheel leap out of the dropouts.

Eventually though, you will want to put a rear hub on that blackcomb, since those nice fat steel dropouts are there on the rear.