{"id":140,"date":"2011-11-29T12:26:10","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T20:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/?p=140"},"modified":"2014-06-04T15:11:30","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T22:11:30","slug":"the-rodriguez-custom-rainier-fork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/the-rodriguez-custom-rainier-fork\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rodriguez Custom Rainier Fork"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><head><br \/>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=UTF-8\">\n<link rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/mainstyle.css\" type=\"text\/css\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/js\/pop.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<title>Carbon fork that will allow fenders and wide tires<\/title><br \/>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"custom carbon fiber bike fork, custom bicycle fork, wide tires, 28 tires and fenders, wide tires and fenders\"><br \/>\n<\/head><br \/>\n<body class=\"catalogbody\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"catalogtable2\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/articles\/rainier-fork\/rainier-fork.gif\" style=\"float:right;border:0px;\" alt=\"Carbon Fiber Rodriguez Rainier Fork\"><\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>There&#8217;s a good Reason for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/catalog\/rainier\/rainier-main.html\" target=\"_blank\">Rodriguez Rainier<\/a> Fork:<\/strong><br ><br \/>\nPeople sometimes think that we had our own fork made in order to save money.  This isn&#8217;t true. The reason that we developed the Rainier fork was because of the fork manufacturers didn&#8217;t offer the fork that our customers wanted.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/articles\/rainier-fork\/old-bike.jpg\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/articles\/rainier-fork\/old-bike.jpg\" style=\"width:200px;float:left;border:1px solid black;margin:8px;\" alt=\"1970's Rodriguez Touring Bike with Fender Clearance\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"highlight\">Ahhh the good old days<\/span><br ><br \/>\nRemember the days when you could buy a sweet racing bike and install wide tires, and maybe a set of fenders for your daily commute? The best of both worlds right? The lightweight speed and performance of a race bike, with the comfort and durability you needed for your commute. Well, those days vanished a long time ago. As many people have been disappointed to discover, a modern race bike will not accept full fenders, and in a lot of cases won&#8217;t even accept wider tires \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n<p>We struggled for years just like our customers did, to try and install fenders and wider tires onto their new race bikes. Cutting and zip tying were common methods of installation. Eventually the industry produced a scaled down version of fenders that installed to the frame by the use of &#8216;rubber bands&#8217;. We called them &#8216;race fenders&#8217; but we all knew that they were a &#8216;pretend fender&#8217; to try and keep some of the crud from hitting your riding buddies.  Unfortunately, the rise of the carbon fork meant that we were in the hands of the fork designers to limit our tire widths, fender clearance, and even our trail numbers (a little frame building lingo for you).  While most manufacturers ceded to the pressure and gave in, we here at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\" target=\"_blank\">Rodriguez<\/a> said &#8220;Enough already!&#8221; We designed and had our own custom carbon fiber fork made specifically for us.  It&#8217;s the fork that the public was demanding. The Rainier Fork.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/articles\/rainier-fork\/rainier-fork-pics.html\" onclick=\"home(this.href);return false;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/articles\/rainier-fork\/short-reach.jpg\" style=\"float:left;border:1px solid black;width:150px;margin:8px;\" alt=\"Carbon fiber fork on Rodriguez with short reach brakes\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span class=\"highlight\">So, what&#8217;s the problem?<\/span><br ><br \/>\n<strong>The problem starts with the brakes<\/strong>.<br \/>\nA wider tire and\/or fenders require the use of brakes that are a little bit longer reach than standard racing brakes.  They look just the same, and they work just as well, but they allow for a little more clearance than the short reach racing brakes. To use these brakes, the manufacturer must position the brake bridge (where the brake mounts to the frame) a little higher. They also have to use a fork that is designed with a little more clearance at the point where the tire and fender have to go through it.<\/p>\n<p>At Rodriguez, we&#8217;ve always had control over the frame, so we could place the brakes at any height we wanted too. Most companies don&#8217;t make their own bicycles, so it&#8217;s not possible for them, but for us&#8230;.no problem.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Forks on the other hand<\/strong> were something completely different. We, like everyone else, relied on the industry to provide the products that we needed.  Well, the industry failed. Although our customers want a lightweight carbon fork, they also want wider tires, and sometimes fenders.  That seemed to be something that Alpha Q, Easton, Reynolds, Wound-up and the like didn&#8217;t even have on their radar (not to mention options for smaller bikes with 650 wheels).  The carbon forks got to a point where they wouldn&#8217;t accept a fender under any circumstance, and even a 28mm tire was an issue if it was kind of a wide 28mm.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/articles\/rainier-fork\/rainier-fork-pics.html\" onclick=\"home(this.href);return false;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/articles\/rainier-fork\/with-fender.jpg\" style=\"float:left;border:1px solid black;width:150px;margin:8px;\" alt=\"Rodriguez carbon fiber fork with long reach brakes and an unmodified fender fitting through the fork\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span class=\"highlight\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\" target=\"_blank\">Rodriguez Bicycles<\/a> to the resuce!<\/span><br ><\/p>\n<p>We kept running into customers who wanted a race bike, but also wanted to run 28mm or wider tires.  Out here in Seattle, fenders are required on many group rides, so the ability to install them is quite convenient too. This is why we spent the time and money to design and have our own carbon fork manufactured. Very few (if any) small frame builders go to this trouble for their customers.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nOriginally it was more expensive for us to make the Rainier fork than to just order the Alpha Q or Profile carbon forks. Once we had the mold though, and went through several orders of the forks, our cost began to drop, and now it&#8217;s actually an option that&#8217;s less expensive than the other options.  It&#8217;s the only carbon fork on the market that offers the rider the opportunity to run up to 32c tires on both 700c or 650c bikes. It even comes with threaded eyelets on the dropout so you don&#8217;t have to put clamps on your carbon fork when you install fenders.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nWe spec&#8217;d the Rainier fork a little heavier so that we could offer a real warranty on it like we do everything else we make. We&#8217;ve used an aluminum steering tube instead of carbon for durability. You&#8217;ll notice that most carbon\/carbon forks are warranted for only a few years. We built the Rainier fork as a fork that someone could ride with confidence forever.<\/p>\n<p>The Rainier fork is available in both 700c and 650c wheel sizes.\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carbon fork that will allow fenders and wide tires There&#8217;s a good Reason for the Rodriguez Rainier Fork: People sometimes think that we had our own fork made in order to save money. This isn&#8217;t true. The reason that we &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/the-rodriguez-custom-rainier-fork\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[13,17,19,18,6],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-news","tag-articles","tag-carbon-fiber","tag-fenders","tag-forks","tag-rodriguez"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p219Oe-2g","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1508,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions\/1508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodbikes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}