Ride comfort and 531 Forks

[SkipdiverJohn]

Since I recently acquired my Raleigh Royal, I now have 3 bikes that have some Reynolds 531 in their frames, the others being a Raleigh Gemini flat bar Hybrid and a Dawes Jaguar drop bar Road bike. All 3 bikes have "proper" forks, not unicrowns, but the Royal has 531 forks - the others appear to be hi-tensile.
Comparing the ride comfort, I am trying to work out what gives the bikes their comfort. The Gemini runs on 35 mm tyres, and offers both decent handling and comfort. The Raleigh Royal and the Dawes are both fitted with 28 mm/ 1 1/8" tyres, but the Royal feels the more comfortable of the two, especially over rough tarmac. Given they appear to have the same 73 degree main frame angles and tyre widths, the most obvious difference is the Royal has 531 fork blades, the Dawes does not. Could this difference really account for the perceived comfort advantage of the Royal? I've read that 531 forks have a tapered gauge to allow for the bending during manufacture, whereas hi-tensile generally don't.
I suppose it could just be my imagination, but the one frame I own with 531 forks does seem to have nicer ride qualities than the others, especially considering the relatively narrow tyres. Has anyone else got a particular preference for 531 forks for comfort reasons?

 

[biggs682]

@SkipdiverJohn those Royals do ride well indeed with 531 forks even though they have normal cro mo rear triangle .

i was worried a couple of weeks ago when i substituted a set of cro forks on my R.E.W Reynolds as the originals were well past there best in appearance , however i can't tell the difference at all in ride quality and feel .

 

[Cycleops]

The differences in ride comfort between forks is very hard to quantify because so many other factors are at play. My Schwinn with plain old Cro-Mo fork seems to be comfortable enough and not too different to a full 531 Dawes I used to have.
One thing I can tell you though is a composite Giant I once owned with a carbon fork was noticably less forgiving over rough surfaces.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The differences in ride comfort between forks is very hard to quantify because so many other factors are at play. My Schwinn with plain old Cro-Mo fork seems to be comfortable enough and not too different to a full 531 Dawes I used to have.

I agree, because very few bikes are truly like-for like comparisons because things like wheelbase and fork rake will also have some effect, and it's hard to separate out what design feature has what effect on how a bike feels. One of my most comfortable rides is Puch 3-speed, with a low-budget lugged gas pipe frame. The forks don't even have proper brazed-in dropouts, they simply swaged the ends of the fork blades flat and stamped a slot in it for the axle to go into.
I'm convinced there is something about the Royal though, that gives it the same comfort level as a bike running tyres one size wider. And the geometry isn't even especially relaxed either; in fact I would regard 73 degrees as quite "sporty" for a purpose-built Touring frame.

 

[Smokin Joe]

You'd need to run the same tyres and tubes to get a meaningful comparison. They are the two biggest factors in ride quality, all else being equal.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

You'd need to run the same tyres and tubes to get a meaningful comparison. They are the two biggest factors in ride quality, all else being equal.

Only trouble is the Royal still runs on 27", so unless I change the wheelset to 700's, the choice of tyres is more restricted. Mr Biggs speaks highly of Schwalbe HS159 tanwalls, so I'll probably fit those after I've wrung the last bit of life out of the original factory fit Michelins it came with over the winter. It will probably be due a new set of rubber after 35 years!

 

[spark303]

@SkipdiverJohn those Royals do ride well indeed with 531 forks even though they have normal cro mo rear triangle .

Not even cro mo, just plain hi tensile steel.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Not even cro mo, just plain hi tensile steel.

AFAIK, the rear stays on mine are 18-23. Only the top model Raleigh Tourers had all-531 frames, and the Royal was one step down from that. Depending how much the customer was prepared to pay they might get:-
18-23 main tubes, forks and stays.
531 main tubes, 18-23 forks, and 18-23 stays.
531 main tubes, 531 forks, 18-23 stays.
531 main tubes, forks, and stays.

 

[spark303]

That’s right, I’ve a Raleigh Classic 15 which is all 531; a Raleigh Royale mixte which is 531 seat and down tube and forks, and 18-23 hi ten elsewhere, a Raleigh Richmond mixte which is 531 seat and down tube only and 18-23 elsewhere; and a Raleigh Misty mixte which 18-23 throughout. My 1948 Raleigh Clubman is 531 plain gauge main tubes and 20-30 hi ten forks and stays. I don’t know what the difference between 18-23 and 20-30 is though!

It seems to be a common misconception that the non 531 frame tubes of old Raleigh’s etc were cro mo when they were hi-tensile steel. Having said that, although hi-ten is heavier than cro mo or 531 etc, it still rides nicely, as others have pointed out above

 

[cyberknight]

The differences in ride comfort between forks is very hard to quantify because so many other factors are at play. My Schwinn with plain old Cro-Mo fork seems to be comfortable enough and not too different to a full 531 Dawes I used to have.
One thing I can tell you though is a composite Giant I once owned with a carbon fork was noticably less forgiving over rough surfaces.

I have bikes with carbon forks runnung 23 mm due to mudgaurd clearance and tbh i can tell fark all to the bike with alloy forks and wider tyres

 

[Drago]

@SkipdiverJohn those Royals do ride well indeed with 531 forks even though they have normal cro mo rear triangle .

i was worried a couple of weeks ago when i substituted a set of cro forks on my R.E.W Reynolds as the originals were well past there best in appearance , however i can't tell the difference at all in ride quality and feel .

Decent CroMo has very similar mechanical properties to 531, and like for like will give much the same characteristics.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Decent CroMo has very similar mechanical properties to 531, and like for like will give much the same characteristics.

I would tend to agree, having an all 531 bicycle, a Falcon San Remo, and a Trek 600 series with 531 cs. I find it hard to tell the difference. I do have the All-American version of the Trek, instead of the one where Trek bought pre assembled stay sets from Japan. The finish at the rear drop out tells you which it is. I could test them now, but both are stored as I just use the Dawes in winter.