501 fork or not?

I recently acquired an above average condition 1992? Raleigh Pioneer Elite LX, Shimano Altus A20 groupset, Alesa rims, Exage hubs, Reynolds 501 handlebars and a lugged 501 frame. The paints black/dark blue with light metallic blue/green spots/splatter paint over it.
The thing is the front wheel sits tilted in the fork, it turns out the left blade is 2-3 mm behind the right, not sure if this would account for the tilt however, I'm going to try and make a jig to see if the blades are equally spread.

But are the forks likely to be 501 or just Hi-tensile steel? I.e. are they worth trying to fix or should I just try and pick up a set of 700c Canti/V brake cromo forks

Andy

I should have added the forks are unicrown, no decals on it.

Andy

This is as close as I could find to your description:

http://www.pedalroom.com/bike/raleigh-p ... e-92-11058

Your own kit is a slightly later date than the 300lx kit on that bike though so your bike may be slightly later than 1992. Either that or the original kit was swapped out at some point.

One possibility of determining whether the forks are 501/cromo would be to weigh them. I'd expect a fork made of these to weigh around a kilo. Hi-ten forks are likely to weigh quite a bit more. Plus, check the steerer tube for any stampings.

As far as I am aware there was no such thing as 501 fork blades and in fact 501 only came in the 3 main tubes from Reynolds.
Anyway Raleigh only specced Reynolds fork blades on the 531 lightweight range, the 501 range got ATT23 Hi-Ten forks.

Carl.

Heres my Pioneer from around 1990 - if it looks like this, very likely to be plain steel. Not as easy to replace as you might think but there are some out there.

This frameset I've got is at least stickered up as having 501 forks, I bought the frameset in 95 / 96 from a local bike shoppe that was closing, and he used to sell the odd frameset, unbranded (apart from the tubing stickers) - like other bike shops.



Of course, there's no guarantee that just because the stickers have been put on the frame, that they are so, I guess same for the frame itself - the guy who ran the shop, though, was fairly well known as a cyclist and bike shop owner, and not the sort to either be that uniformed, or make out things to be something they're not. But all the same, I can accept that just because a frame has been labelled a certain way, doesn't mean for sure that it is all that's claimed. All the same, I'm fairly sure I've other forks stickered up as 501 - but I suppose two things apply - my addled memory, and the stickers being accurate.

Ahem. the reference to 501 you make was probably for road in normal dia. you could get a full double butted tube set inc headtube steerer stays etc. I have two.

http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/reynol ... eguide.htm

I was thinking that the pioneer would have used the road tubeset rather than the ATB one.

Carl.

bikey:) : Your right on the money with that one. Heres mine



I think the 300LXCranks on that one are nicer then mine...at least you can change the chainrings when they wear out.

I had my suspicions the forks would not be 501, so would it just be the three main tubes in 501 and the rest ATT23 /18-23 steel? And are ATT23 as bad as some would have you believe Hi ten forks are.

Legrandfromage : your right about 1" 700c canti/V forks being a bit scarce, found a couple of new Raleigh branded Hi-ten ones around the £30 mark, the steeres about 10mm longer than my fork, could I use spacers in a threaded headset? There's a Surly Crosscheck cromo lugged fork with a 1" steerer on Wiggle which does look nice but is a bit more expensive at £67 and would need an aheadset fitted too.

I'm thinking of changing out the bars/levers/shifters and going with Midge dirt drops, drop bar levers and not sure what shifters yet, bar end, bodged thumbies with a stretched steel clamp or Ideally WTB mounts and XT thumbies and making a sort of roughstuff ish do it all, though it all depends on getting the Fork issue sorted.

Andy

Would it be worth/advisable to try and straighten out the forks? Never cold set a frame or forks before but Sheldon brown would have you believe its not so hard, but I have my doubts about clamping the steerer in my wood vice and applying gratuitous amounts of -controlled- force to the Fork blade in question.

Andy