Sorted I need a fork, I need many things, I digress.

[bikeworkshop]

That 5mm might make the top tube sloping, @Takingabreak

As soon as one of those engineers reaches for their spirit level, the game is up!
Bob will be swiftly and unceremoniously thrown out of the
Horizontal Toptube Clubhouse.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

I'll take a look tonight. unlikely to be a straight blade though. assuming V or canti mounts rather than caliper or disc?

Caliper please.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

It has a sloping top tube 380mm will work, it's 377-8mm as best as I can measure on a tape.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Is it a blue clubman, or maybe putty?
Wouldnt a straight steel fork feel a little harsh on 25s?
A tapered, quality fork like a Colnago Precisa would improve the ride, but cost more than a clubman, as well as being hens teeth in inchandaneighth - bonded carbon was the new thing

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

You might not want to spend this much but I used a thorn / sjs fork on my clubman.

One of these might work, what's 5mm a-c between friends

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/forks/46-700c-thorn-audax-mk3-r-steel-fork-blue/

They also have it available in black

Thanks for the link, it is a much nicer fork than the Spa audax and £40 cheaper.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Is it a blue clubman, or maybe putty?
Wouldnt a straight steel fork feel a little harsh on 25s?
A tapered, quality fork like a Colnago Precisa would improve the ride, but cost more than a clubman, as well as being hens teeth in inchandaneighth - bonded carbon was the new thing

Carbon=no. I've ridden steel forks on 23s with 120 psi. It will ride fine and not snap off up my arse.
Sale pic.

 

[bikeworkshop]

All steel Forks are not equal.
- basic pg straight Forks are pretty horrible.

I remember these,
The Dawes ClubPerson we called them, being in tune with the Zeitgeist...

you can't get 28s on there with Guards, just as wider tyres were becoming normal.

520 frame, it's a nice ride. One of the last from Dawes.

21st century Dawes through and through

- a continuous failure to move with the times, and their nice bikes dropped out of the catalogue year by year as a result. We stocked Dawes for for decades, but once the Galaxy was gone and it was just generic stuff, what's the point?

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Apart from the stem being to long it did ride very nicely, I may have a nice Raleigh frameset up for sale when its done.

 

[bikeworkshop]

It's also that period where bike specs hadn't realised that STIs bring the ride forwards onto the hoods, so you want a shorter stem than in the "downtube days"
We still have 2 boxes of 110+ ahead stems, anything cheapish goes straight in the recycling.

 

[Takingabreak]

A few things I remember from mine, I could fit 27mm vittoria open pave tyres with mudguards.

I couldn't fit 32mm tyres without mudguards, the chain stays were a bit too close.

When I fitted the thorn fork, which wasn't their audax model but something older they were selling off cheap, the front brake pads didn't reach the rim nicely using the original tektro brakes. I ended up using some miche 47-57's which were actually tektro anyway and they were ok. The originals were ever so slightly too short and I was tempted to file the slot a tad.