dual-crown fork possibilities?

[ANdRewLIu6294]

ok, i was just thinking, and came up with a question.

what would happen if you put a dual-crown fork on a bike that was never meant for one?

i've heard that the headtube could rip out on impact, is this true? it seems like a dual-crown fork would relieve some of the stress on the headtube, since its crowns are at two points instead of one.

[MK_]

It's actually the opposite. With a single crown fork some of the energy gets transfered into flex of the crown and steerer. When you put a second clamp up top and stretch the stanchions all the way to the top, then the head tube gets sandwitched and becomes part of the fork, so to speak, so all that energy that would be flex now acts on the welds that hold the headtube to the frame. Without strong gussets, the head tube will be gone pretty quickly.

_MK

[ANdRewLIu6294]

oh, ok, i get it now.

but on the specialized bighit '06, the headtube area doesnt look any more stronger than a hardrock, i dont see any gussets or anything, it the aluminum stronger? or the welds on it?

[Jeff M]

oh, ok, i get it now.

but on the specialized bighit '06, the headtube area doesnt look any more stronger than a hardrock, i dont see any gussets or anything, it the aluminum stronger? or the welds on it?

The Bighit headtube is way stronger: larger guage tubing, greater wall thickness, and likely a different grade of aluminum.
I know that the FSR bighits can all take dual crowns and I'm fairly certain that the single pviots (Bighit Spec) can too. Do you own a hardrock?

[ANdRewLIu6294]

yeah, i was just wondering cuz i've seen alot of hardtails with dual-crowns, and some of them have really small subing and i was wondering if those were strong evough to support them.

im settled on a Manitou Sherman Flick '04 with130mm travel for an upgrade, but i was just wondering about the hardtails with REALLY slack headtube angles and dual-crowns.

[SurfSailRide]

This will happen:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=604938

[brillantesdv]

really? resurrect a thread just so u can reference another thread?

[Dougal]

oh, ok, i get it now.

but on the specialized bighit '06, the headtube area doesnt look any more stronger than a hardrock, i dont see any gussets or anything, it the aluminum stronger? or the welds on it?

The hardrocks are pretty tough and would survive with a DC fork for a while. All depends how it's ridden of course.
Compare it to your average XC hardtail and you'll see the difference. Much less metal holding the head-tube on.

[SurfSailRide]

really? resurrect a thread just so u can reference another thread?

Yup.

[b-kul]

Yup.

cool.