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I've been fascinated by bicycle geometry for a couple of years and recently have delved into the geometry of vintage MTB's.
I know that the earliest bikes (Breezer, Ritchey, etc..) basically used the geometry of the old Excelsior type bikes they had been using with 70/68 seat/head angles being common. I know the head angles tightened up a few years later with 70 seeming to be common and I know many are now 71 or 71.5 degrees. I just bought Bicycling Magazines 1985 special on ATB's (All Terrain Bicycles) and several builders, including Breeze, Ritchey and Cunningham) mention the geometry they started with and at least one mentions how the angles evolved.
My question concerns fork rake. Were they maintaining a constant amount of fork rake thru all these head angle changes? Finding catalogs with that information from that far back has been difficult. From the 90's to now, a 40-45mm rake seems very common but I don't know if that's what they were using back then.
Does anyone have any insight on what fork rake measurements were doing as the MTB head angles increased?
I know that the earliest bikes (Breezer, Ritchey, etc..) basically used the geometry of the old Excelsior type bikes they had been using with 70/68 seat/head angles being common. I know the head angles tightened up a few years later with 70 seeming to be common and I know many are now 71 or 71.5 degrees. I just bought Bicycling Magazines 1985 special on ATB's (All Terrain Bicycles) and several builders, including Breeze, Ritchey and Cunningham) mention the geometry they started with and at least one mentions how the angles evolved.
My question concerns fork rake. Were they maintaining a constant amount of fork rake thru all these head angle changes? Finding catalogs with that information from that far back has been difficult. From the 90's to now, a 40-45mm rake seems very common but I don't know if that's what they were using back then.
Does anyone have any insight on what fork rake measurements were doing as the MTB head angles increased?