Early Trek Carbon Fork Question

[Canuckbiker]

Late last year my son purchased a 1995 Trek 5200 Carbon road bike with my blessing. I'm more of a lugged steel guy but my son was smitten with the nice carbon lines and amazing red/copper paint, he also likes vintage rigs. Full 600 tricolor components are nice too.

I don't have a pic of the actual bike handy, here is a screen shot of the same bike from the 95' catalogue:

My question is with the very slim and beautiful carbon fork. I realize Trek was aiming to appease the roadie crowd of the day and ensure it looked the same as a steel fork but it is very, very flexible.

I'm talking under hard front braking, the fore/aft movement can be pretty unnerving when I have taken it out for test rides.

At this point I'm mostly concerned with possible failure (29 year old carbon). I will probably push him to swap for a period steel fork but he plans to get out this weekend and start putting some miles in. He will be a pretty tame rider though. No crazy downhills I'm sure.

Does anyone know the reputation of this fork? Prone to failure or just very flexible?

Thanks for any helpful feedback

 

[Paul R]

Nice bikes these i remember the cataloge pics. You could get the fork scanned/x rayed by a company for a bit more piece of mind. It is a very slender fork so not suprised theres some flex.

 

[ChromeChainstay]

i would recommend this.

https://ritcheylogic.com/bike/forks...MIsInY5NWLhAMVXFxHAR0f-QN_EAQYASABEgKDfPD_BwE
i owned a 5200 at one point. i would replace with this imo.

 

[4th in the devil]

Treks of that era could suffer from corrosion between the aluminium inserts at the steerer and drop outs and the carbon fibre. Usually the paint around this area would bubble up and flake off. My 2007 Trek Madone has been my dedicated turbo/Zwift bike for a number of years for this reason. Although everything still feels solid enough it doesn't fill you with confidence!

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

@Woz @benjabbi May have some insight.

 

[Woz]

Can't see a product recall for the forks here:

https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/company/legal_policies/safety_recalls/

The age and not knowing the bike history would at the very least warrant a full proper inspection IMHO. Worth popping them on the scales too.

 

[Canuckbiker]

Thanks so much for all of the helpful feedback! I will definitely give it a more detailed inspection for riding expected to take place soon.

I'll also start the hunt for a steel or modern version not only to be safe but it will provide a much better riding experience in the long run

 

[Woz]

Assuming your son is an adult, I think he his on the hot seat. Show him this thread.

My own view, you just have to be very sensible - no reason to be paranoid, but must respect the fact nothing is eternal, and some materials and productions technics aged better than others. Consider rider weight too in your decision process.

Finally, I've had uber lightweight Carbon, Ti, Cro-Mo forks, and very pencil thin vintage steel forks - they are all designed to have some give and flex for good reason. Personally think a lot is to do with if the bike was thrashed to near death before by racing, accidents, and bad treatment.

 

[Canuckbiker]

100% agree and will do. He’s into his early 20s and I’m just thrilled he’s taken an interest in road riding (has always had an interest in MTBs)

My biggest concern test riding his bike was the excessive shutter when applying the front brake, it would really bother me over time. This led me to wonder about the reliability of the fork as well.

I road a bonded alloy fork on my lugged steel road bike for a couple years in the 90s. It was really light. It’s still in tact to this day but I switched back to the steel fork made for the frame after a couple years and never looked back. It tracks better and I never worry about it snapping doing 50-60kmh down a hill, lol

But back to your original suggestion, yes, he’ll ultimately make the choice whether to swap or not and what to swap to

 

[Woz]

Great. I think it is important to dis-mystify and just have a sense of being level headed what we are dealing with.

@Guinessisgoodforyou I know went through this with some early "death forks" and got nitty gritty. did his homework, and ended up with an astounding build which should be sound as houses from now for forever in principal. I'll leave him to tell the story and show.

Stephen Roach reported and descended with a cracked 753 steel fork at a race, and again it confirms one thing and one thing only - you need to be a bit weird to be deluded that these uber lightweight parts could live well well well beyond there initial guarantee period.

Steel I think is safe, because if it fails, it's slow and you can still control the bike in a "get me home" scenario.