Carbon Forks - Road Bike - what are main bits of spec I ought to be comparing.

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KMKM

Senior Member
Hi,

I have seen people talk about carbon forks, when buying a bike.

Do they make a massive difference in quality of a bike?

Not an easy question to answer, but just say I have a £650 budget to buy a new road bike (flatbar or dropdown bars), what are the key things in the spec, I should be comparing all other things equal?


Thanks a lot.
 

accountantpete

Brexiteer
Carbon forks reduce the buzz from the road so you can pump your tyres up even harder ( or keep the tyre pressures and enjoy a better ride).

The best ones are Carbon throughout, followed by carbon forks with an aluminium steerer.

With your budget it will be the latter -usually a stock pair made by the frame manufacturer - which are perfectly ok and you can always upgrade at a later date should you wish. In addition you don't have to worry about over-tightening the stem and doing the carbon steerer in!
 
OP
OP
K

KMKM

Senior Member
accountantpete said:
Carbon forks reduce the buzz from the road so you can pump your tyres up even harder ( or keep the tyre pressures and enjoy a better ride).

The best ones are Carbon throughout, followed by carbon forks with an aluminium steerer.

With your budget it will be the latter -usually a stock pair made by the frame manufacturer - which are perfectly ok and you can always upgrade at a later date should you wish. In addition you don't have to worry about over-tightening the stem and doing the carbon steerer in!

Thanks mate

So for my type of budget, what bits of the bike (assuming you could only give a couple of areas) are the most important when I make comparisons?

Thanks
 

accountantpete

Brexiteer
The most important areas are 1.Frame 2.Wheels 3. Groupset 4. Bars/seat post etc

With the main manufacturers the frames are much the same apart from subtle differences in geometry - which is why folks like to test ride the bike first in order to get a feel of how they handle.

You want a decent groupset - Shimano Sora/Tiagra/105(in ascending order and cost) or any Campag.

The wheels on a new £650 bike will be bog standard whatever bike you buy - but will get you by until the name Zipp comes to your attention.

The rest of the kit is also bog standard, designed to keep the price low more than anything else but you can easily upgrade the bits on a gradual basis.

Have a think about the bars though - converting from flats to drops can cost £200 or so.
 
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