Lets Talk About Forks and Disk Brakes

I’ve been looking and thinking about disk brakes a lot lately. I’m a pretty forward thinking person. Mostly for practical reasons. So I can’t help but prepare for their arrival on road racing and cyclocross bicycles. Lately there have been some discussions between framebuilders and enthusiasts about how best to mount these calipers to a fork. The pictures aren’t pretty when forks fail and my worry is that the forks we use aren’t suitable for the extra loads disks place on the structural members they are attached to. Yes, I’ve read the collective wisdom of other builders but I’m not buying it. The fork that most of us build today, with it’s pleasant rake, tapered shape, and detailed fork crowns largely evolved because of the placement of the rim brake and the forces applied. Lightweight fork blades, hollow crowns, and modern dropouts are what they are because of the rim brake. Modifying a lightweight fork blade and fork crown for disks may be a bad idea. I think its going to take a redesign of my fork to deliver a disk ready fork that is SAFE, light, elegant and delivers the ride I want to be associated with my bicycles. Until that time I’m looking at the available commercial options and think I have the solution. Stay tuned.