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Re-raking a front fork

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TrufflesEater

Speeding Up
Jun 6, 2007
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Has anyone ever had a steel fork re-raked? I want to increase the offset to
improve handling with a handlebar bag (and eliminate toeclip overlap).
Wondering about cost and where to have this done in Tokyo.
 
this can be done but it actually weakens the forks and also can actually cause the forks to continue travel.

I had a pair of Chas Roberts forks that I needed the same doing to and the frame builder warned me against it as a lot of shops will just cold press them to the new angle required.To do the job properly they would need to be striped down to the metal and then heat treated and pressed to the required angle, then recoated and painted...... basically its cheaper to get a new pair of forks.
 
Dire Warnings

Kiwisimon and FarEast, thank you for the well-meaning warnings. The
Matchak article from the framebuilder's mailing list (see below) I have
already read -- part of my homework. Yes, you have to consider the
geometric changes to the head and seat tube angles, brake/tire clearances.
The particular fork I want re-raked has been done many times before and the
details are freely available.

Regarding dire warnings from a framebuilder about the need for heat
treatment -- very odd. In a long discussion (several hundred messages) of
re-raking on a framebuilder's mailing list ([email protected]), which
includes lots of reknown custom-frame names (Richard Sachs, David Bohm,
Brian Bayliss), no mention was made of weakening a fork blade by bending it
a few millimeters, or the need for heat treatment. Quite the opposite: it was
emphasized that the process is entirely reversible -- if you don't like how the
bike handles with more rake, have it bent back to the original dimensions.
 
So how much toe overlap are you hoping to remedy with a few millimeters of rake? I think that you may be trying to create something that the bike you are trying to retrofit wasn't designed for. As to which builders in Japan might do it I would think almost none. There are liability issues and the procedure is very fiddly. Buy a new frame. You deserve it
 
TrufflesEater,

Like you I am just repeating what I was told by one of the top frame builders in the UK. Im no expert on frame building or metal fatigue and properties so I can't answer for all the facts I was given.
 
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