Replacement fork for CAAD12 rim brake

Tech Tech - What to Buy
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As detailed in this post: PSA for fellow rim brake riders with carbon forks, check the bolt that holds your brake caliper! , I am in search of a replacement fork for my beloved CAAD 12 rim brake bike.

The headset is a tapered 1-1/8’’ top and 1-1/4’’ bottom. From what I can find online my 2017 CAAD12 in 52cm has a fork rake of 45mm (source: Geometry Details: Cannondale CAAD12 2017).

I initially ordered this fork: Futura Caliper SLX – Columbus because it should work nicely as a replacement. Unfortunately this fork is available in 45mm and 50mm rake and even though I ordered the 45mm one, the online store sent me the 50mm.

My first question would be, is there a perceivable difference between 45mm and 50mm fork rake? For reference, I really like how the bike used to handle.

Now browsing the Columbus online store directly, I found this fork: COLUMBUS TUSK 1-1/4" ( PAINTED / GLOSSY ) – Cinelli Official which is a little less fancy, has an aluminum steerer tube and as a result weights around 150 grams more. On the flip side, it’s half the price of the other fork.

Apart from the weight, I don’t care about 150 grams more, would there be a perceivable performance difference between and aluminum and a carbon steerer tube?

From what I understand, the fork as a shape is a cantilever. That’s the reason why carbon being light and stiff is a particularly choice there. A similarly stiff aluminum or steel fork would need to be much heavier. My thinking now is that the Columbus tusk for should give me (almost) all the benefits of a carbon fiber fork, because is carbon fiber for the cantilever part that matters for stiffness, with just a little bit of a weight penalty.

Is my thinking correct, or would I be disappointed in terms of performance of an aluminum carbon hybrid fork coming from the stock CAAD12 full carbon fork?
Any help is much appreciated :slight_smile:

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Call me old school but I always see George Hincapie sitting by the cobbles after his aluminum steerer broke. He probably had a long stem and was on the roughest paths in Northern France, still, I’d go for all carbon personally. I put a new 1-1/8” ENVE rim brake carbon fork on my old Serotta, 43mm rake. And yes, they are not giving these things away $$!. Rim Brake Fork – ENVE Composites USA

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Hm interesting for sure. I guess the aluminum and the carbon have to be bonded together somehow and that might fail more easily than call carbon.

I have of course looked at/lusted after an Enve fork but that is a little steep for my budget. Especially being based in Europe, the recent tariffs have made me turn towards European companies. Hence the Columbus.

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Tariffs! MF’ers! yeah, I get that. Columbus does have centuries of experience. Hincapie’s steerer broke at the bottom of the stem, I believe, suggesting over-tightened stem and metal fatigue. And this was probably a Trek fork, recently developed at the time. People seem to have figured out the metal to carbon bonding. As for 45mm vs 50mm, I’m of no help.

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I got an Enve for my SuperSix from a similar era (2017). I don’t actually know the replacement’s rake… rides great though!

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Ah, y’all with the Enve forks, I’m getting Enveous …
Good to hear though that Enve stuff is at least worth the money.

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Thanks for the clarification on the theories of the failure there.

I might just stick with the full carbon then and ask the online store to send me the 45mm rake one that I actually ordered.