Carbon v steel forks on roadbike

MungoMan

Entry level roadbike frames are often Aluminium with carbon fork.
I've been riding an entry level bike like this for several years, but it was stolen.

Now I'm looking for a secondhand bike, must be cheap as it may be stolen again.

I see a lot of secondhand aluminium bikes with steel forks.
Examples would be the carrera roadbikes in halfords, they are below the quality level most roadbike enthusiasts would consider entry level, but by all accounts, they are mechanically reliable and go fast when the engine is good.

The question is about the steel forks.
Do they give a harsh bumpy ride compared to carbon fork ?

Particularly interested in hearing from people who had steel forks and changed to carbon forks, what kind of difference did it make.

Also how many grams lighter would a carbon fork weigh ?

Lumen

I thought the Carrerra bikes had aluminium forks, not steel.

blorg

Aluminum forks are reputed as harsh, not so much steel, which are just heavy. Ballpark- at a guess- steel fork will be double the weight of a typical carbon fork and maybe three times the weight of a light carbon fork. Most entry-entry-level road bikes will have alu forks these days. Hybrids you will still find with steel forks- I had several.

Does it make a huge difference? I am not sure. My Giant Bowery has an aluminium fork and I have done long rides on it (200km) and not felt particularly uncomfortable. I also did very long rides on a bike with a steel fork. Certainly for "a secondhand bike, must be cheap" I wouldn't worry too much about aluminium vs vs carbon vs steel for the fork. I would pay a few quid extra for a carbon one (say €25-40 on a secondhand bike.)

MungoMan

Lumen wrote: »

I thought the Carrerra bikes had aluminium forks, not steel.

Checked on the internet, they have either chromoly steel forks or "blade" forks, not sure what material blade forks are.

Lumen

MungoMan wrote: »

Checked on the internet, they have either chromoly steel forks or "blade" forks, not sure what material blade forks are.

OK.

Well I haven't ridden a Carrera, but all the road bikes I've owned in recent memory have had carbon forks, and they each had significantly different ride quality. The comfiest was an aluminum-framed Planet-X cyclocross bike, but I think that was designed with a bit of give - it certainly flexed a lot on the turbo.

So I think the answer is "it depends". Which isn't very useful.

If you're bothered just buy something that will take 28s.

Ryder

have a steel fork paddywagon, crashed and changed to a carbon fork ......no difference. Still a great ride quality for what is a heavy bike. Later on changed the wheels and noticed a massive difffernence