Working on an engineering project.

[Chris Picone]

Sup dudes.

So this summer I'll be working on an engineering project to kill some time and to get better at computer aided design. Thinking about it for awhile, I thought it would be cool to design a scooter fork for fun. Obviously it wouldn't be as tested or good as a professionally tested and made scooter fork, but it would be a cool project and I'd get a part out of it. So I have a few questions for you guys.

1. Has anyone else made forks machined from solid? I know a lot of welded forks exist, but I wanted to machine this one with a CNC mill and CNC lathe out of a solid block of aluminium.

2. How heavy are some of the average "strong" forks, so I can figure out an ideal / target weight?

3. I haven't worked with a threadless fork before, what do I have to incorporate in my design to allow for a compression mechanism?

4. What are the most common failure points? I'm assuming side loading is usually the culprit, bending the bottom piece, or cantilevered force from landing hard on the bars snapping the headtube are the main culprits.

Thanks!

 

[mikle]

wat?
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[Chris Picone]

Simplified version:

1. Are any forks made from one piece, instead of welded together?

2. How much do forks weigh?

3. Do I need to do anything fancy to let people put a compression system in?

4. How do you break your forks?

 

[Michael Rankin]

Yes there are solid one piece forks. They are much better that way. Not sure on how much all the forks weigh. But don't be a weight freak, build something strong. My opinion would be to make an integrated starnut in the steertube for use with scs or hic. Just make it strong.

 

[Billie Rainbow]

intergrated crown race <3333 hells yes
if its aluminum, doubt it would weigh more then a stock fork would if done correctly.
also take example from sz scorchers, the legs are curved a certain way to practically stop bending. you can easily design nice looking practically unbendable legs with near no weight behind them. as for forktubes, you can figure that threadless has alot more strength behind it so it not really necessary to go thicker then say 5-6mm wall thickness to keep the weight down. as for compression systems, intergrated starnut is a good idea but some people do run ics so make it optional.