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I need to take more pictures

This looks very fun. I approve of the mudguard mount.

I plan to keep the 700c on the rear. It's like a poor person's clydesdale conversion, kind of.

Thanks. One nut is enough to pre-tension the headset and once the ahead clamp is tightened the nut becomes redundant. I think the nut might come loose though because it's not under much tension, which wouldn't affect the headset but might be annoying. So yeah another locknut would fix that, or maybe I could just tighten the single nut right down after the ahead stem is clamped.

I was surprised that tightening the ahead stem actually clamps the quill in place quite firmly, even before the quill bolt is tightened. I didn't think the ahead clamp would compress the steerer at all. I'm not sure what the structural implications of the ahead & quill squeezing & compressing the same section of steerer tube are. Might be silly. Also, the ahead is slightly overlapping the steerer threads, but not by that much.

Sorry about the AI bokeh.

I've installed the forks, and a 26" wheel. I think I love it. The change in handling isn't as extreme as I expected but it is a lot more responsive and there's much less wheel flop.

The steerer on the new fork is very long for the frame, but instead of chopping it down and re-cutting the thread I'm running it threadless, with the ahead stem mounted on the steerer as intended (it was on the quill before). Of course, having the quill in the steerer means no star nut / top cap to pre-tension the headset, but a threaded locknut is doing the job nicely.

I'm super happy with the rack mods especially as it was all done by eye - so grateful to Winston for going along with my weird requests. The tabs were chopped off the bottom & brazed onto the next rail up which means the rack is now as low as possible. There's a brake hanger brazed onto the top which is much better than my previous efforts. And the repurposed slotted rack struts between the mid-fork barrels allow some adjustment in the fit (W's idea).

I took a trip down to see the wizard of hither green, so good.

I threw some wheels and the new forks onto this very similar Galaxy I've been hoarding. It's one size smaller than the one I ride and slightly different geo but I think it looks good, might swap.

Also used an app to measure the tube angles. As I estimated above, everything gets about 2 degrees steeper with the new forks + 26" x 42mm front wheel. This is without the extra fork rake, but also without a crown race or bearings, so that probably cancels out.

The BB is not as low as I feared - 272mm on this frame (with new forks and mismatched wheels).

But the seat tube is much steeper than I thought - nearly 77 degrees with the new forks! Thanks for the warning @Crunty. I think this'll put the saddle about 20mm closer to the BB horizontally.

Oof that's not great. I hope he does stick a brace on without any drama, or at least provides some justification of why it's not needed.

I'm not sure about the seat tube, it's pretty slack now so don't think it'll be too bad. I should measure the angles properly. I'm more worried about the reach to the drops. And the BB will be pretty low to the ground, 255mm I think, but I have clown bike cranks so that should be ok. I'm hoping these forks will get me the front end geometry with minimal effort. If the seat tube and reach are problematic I reckon it could be fixed by chopping some length off the top tube and down tube, and replacing the head tube.

As for what low trail feels like - it's like heaven, especially through the corners. Obviously I've never actually ridden a low trail bike, except maybe a cargo bike, but I have skimmed through a decade's worth of online hype and nuanced debate. I'm so ready to join the low trail army. I'm going to start slagging off Grant from Rivendell and saying lots of Heineous things.

I think the front is going to drop by about 40mm. 31.5mm from the wheel change, minus maybe 8mm for the tyre difference (42s vs 32s on the back). But the axle-to-crown of the new fork is 13mm less and increasing the rake will reduce that even more, maybe another 4mm. So yeah, quite a drop.

If my trigonometry serves me the change in tube angles is 180*arctan(drop/wheelbase)/PI. My wheelbase is 1070mm so that's a bit more than 2 degrees. I don't actually know the current head tube angle but I'm guessing 71, it's pretty slack. So I expect a 73-74 degree head tube which, with a 60mm offset fork, would give 31-37mm trail. I think you're right, 65mm offset would be too much.

Yes! He's German, not Austrian.

My bike is finally getting the low trail conversion I've been holding in my head for years. To begin with I'll run a 26" wheel on the front which will steepen the slack tubes and probably have some other undesired side effects.

I got a good deal on these ebay forks and they just arrived. I'm going to try get them re-raked to 60-65mm. Very excited. No idea what the double eyelets on one side are for.

Sheldon was a visionary, a freethinker. It's a bonkers double cable setup on that front brake.

I seem to remember there was also an eccentric Austrian who toured the world with double bars but I can't find them now.

It's going to be good.

I finally caught up with this thread after months of putting in the hours. I don't know what to say. I'm emotionally exhausted. But you're good at writing words and nonwords.

Amazing. Does the wishbone tube thing have another function?

Yeah I haven't found anything that ticks all the boxes and I've been watching ebay for a long time, so it'll probably be a custom fork or at least a modified one. I'm looking forward to seeing your frame back from the builder!

Thank you ;)

My main motivation other than being an unorthodox wanker is to handle weight better at the front. Running a small wheel will reduce the trail (and wheel flop) both because it's a small wheel and because the head tube will steepen. But the angle could do with being even steeper, and my frame is also a bit long. Chopping down the top tube slightly & replacing the head tube could solve those problems.

I think it makes more sense than replacing the frame. I'm torn between 1" and 1 1/8" though. Where's your frame builder based?

Sweet. You're right the dropout looks a bit vulnerable. Is there any way the rack supports could attach to the chain stays / seat stays instead?

Ha I'm planning to do exactly this to my galaxy - both the headtube replacement and the smaller wheel at the front, though 26" in my case. Will the new tube be fillet brazed?

I love a fork bodge. Are those rear tubes for the rack?

Ah I missed that. Good work.

Lush new fork. Do you still have the Evans fork?

I'm doing the brake cable through the rack thing. Although I want to avoid drilling a big hole in the rack, so I bought a block of aluminium for a couple of quid and spent last night & this morning fashioning a cable stop out of it, which will sit on top of the rack. Pretty pleased with the result given my amateur skills in the workshop.

I drilled a 5.5mm hole in the top to take the brake outer, or a v-brake noodle, followed all the way through with a 3mm hole to take the inner cable + plastic sleeve. Then drilled a 9mm hole perpendicular (the diameter of the rack tubing), hacksawed off the excess & smoothed down with a bench grinder & sandpaper.

Next thing is to drill a 3mm hole through the rack which I'm slightly cacking my pants about.