All about bicycles, electric-assisted bikes, technology and safety in the press

The most common safety risks that we come across in our daily work around bicycle safety, technology and operating instructions are also published by us in articles in the leading German special-interest magazines TOUR (Europe's road bike magazine no. 1), BIKE (Europe's mountain bike magazine no. 1), MYBIKE and EMTB in order to make this information, which is important for the industry, available to a wider public.

For many years now, the Eurobike Show Daily, trade fair magazine of the annual Eurobike Show, has also given us the opportunity to publish our view of major developments in the cycle industry in full-page articles.

We also speak regularly in independent expert presentations about all areas of bicycle technology and the bicycle market. In addition, we are quoted by further special-interest magazines of the industry and the trade as well as increasingly by radio and television in their media reports, which shows us that we are spot on with our advice. The section "News" informs you about the latest news from our specialist areas. The reports and publications of this section are listed chronologically or according to areas of interest.

TOUR 09/2003
Reading time 0:40 minutes

Talent scout

The fork, the unknown component: The lean two bladed component part at the front of the bike has more potential for ridability and comfort than most people know. TOUR lifts the lid on it.

A road bike's frame set consists of frame and fork. But while many bikers toss and turn in bed when it comes to choosing the right frame, they do not waste much thought on the fork. It is the fork, however, which influences the bike's riding characteristics much more than widely anticipated. It decides significantly about steering behaviour, riding comfort, riding safety and, to a smaller extent, about aerodynamics.

A short excursion into riding physics, shown on the example of steering behavior, clearly illustrates this. The important measurement for this is the caster as function of the fork's pre-bend as well as the frame's steering head angle. Roadbike forks have a pre-bend of 35 to 55 millimeters, depending on the respective manufacturer, which makes casters from 4 to 6.5 centimetres depending on the steering head angle. These two extremes could also be called "Italian" (agile) and "American" (phlegmatic) pole: A long caster smoothens the ride, a short one makes it more agile.

(...)

Author: Dirk Zedler

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