manuelschafer: 1979-> 81/83 Rigid Fork Jewellery - Cunningham / Potts Types in the making 🔥
Type l, Type ll, Type lll Cunningham fork design for WTB & Ibis and friends,
Even though the first Type ll fork was a segmented design without the iconical sleeved fork crown to be developed shortly after in the early 80s, here its all about the actual building process, picture reference aswell as different makers details.. along with the history of the inherent design.
The secret of this fork design of course is taper baldes vs internal butting of said tubular blades.
However for some demanding riders as seen in a series of pics here, Charlie replaced legs sometimes with unbutted plaingauge material for aggressive DH use to become basically undestructable.
Other measures for specification were different length proportion of the actual crown tubing for the legs to slide in, visible at the distance between cut angles and brake bosses.
The Type l didnt predate the type ll fork in the making but it did in fact on paper as prototyping.
As local Marinate Gary Fisher heard of Charlie Cunninghams brakes, he wanted them on his own Ritchey Mountainbike. Charlie made the precision fit and the bike got even updated with one of his forks later on.
Why this information ? Well Fisher was so exited that he wanted to fund the construction of Cunninghams new fork in 1980 which then was applied for the first time in 1981 on Don Cooks bike who at the time apprenticed at the fairfax offhandmannor applied technology workshop of this trained aeronautical engineer.
After The forks were designed with the mandrel bend crowns (inner and outer guiding with proper heat treating necessary!) and socket sleeved tube blades, Charlie had another idea for an a even lighter fork crown ideally suited to light riders or long distance touring.
Fisher kind of "borrowed" the design by taking CC`s drawing to Japan (not telling him). Thats how the unicrown fork was born and the rest is history...
.. so it was left to Cunningham himself to later come back to his simple fork design thus additionally to the straight blade non tapering Type l fork on his first light weight aluminum mountain bike there was the chance to colaborate with the KOSKI brothers on new unicrown tubing after is introduction in 1983 when G.F. returned from Japan with the "new gauging". What Charlie mentions in his 1989 Cunningham offroad infopac is exactly that new slow tapering straight blade fork, he is ready to build labelled a Type lll.
As there is a type 3, there is also type 4 fork desiged by Charlie to his and Wtb bikes at the time for complete reference but thats another story. Later on Steve Potts passionately made Mini Type ll forks honoring his good friend and business partner back then.
Scot Nicol (Ibis)
Charlie designed it, and we went in together on batches of crowns (acquiring, tubing, bending, machining). We each did our own legs and dropouts and welding and silver brazing and such. No royalties were involved, Charlie just wanted people to be riding good forks.
Pics borrowed,
These are partly from Steves blog, facebook and instagram to showcase some of his work and craftsmanship.
Some other pics are Cuningham forks which in the beginning (just as with Steve, but CC was usually a few years ahead) had straight and then slightly pointy fork crown tips later on ...
The design of the fork is from CUNNINGHAM yet at the same time also exclusively used by Steve and Ibis with the latter sharing crown bends and making their own dropouts
There were also a few exceptions back then like Joe Breeze (T1), Otis Guy(T2), Mark Slate(T2), Ross Shafer (T2) and later on for some years Willits was making Typ 2 forks also with crowns from Potts, but lately its only Steve and sons, having the complete formula to make em legit and right.
Having been on the hunt for an old Type ll version to finish restoration of an American Breezer from 1989, it couldn't wait ordering a new fork from Steve only to have older style manufacture dropout details. None the less as long as he made them and you supplied old parts it could always be done he said.
The fork design was of course out there before 87, but is mentioned from there on in the Wtb catalogs and Mombat. Ibis claims to have made the fork as well since 84.
Steve had been collaborating with Charlie for that Type 2 forks as early as 1982.
The old order sheet to start the Album with was shared by a former client..
Crown fork design originally started out as a segmented version by Charlie Cunningham in around 1978/89 and went on to become a "R2-bend" (as used on the Gooseneck stems) cromoly sleeve tube and evolutioned out from fillet brazing and then became tig only for CCRs & Phoenixes.
Later (Funny enough Charlie as opposed to Steve finished his own tig welded crowns sometimes with some brass only upfront to give a more unified look).
As a nice contrast to some of Steves rare titanium bikes in the DIA series he made fully brazed corwns as a nice expensive lush contrast to the welded mainframes.
Over time the fork design has been executed in all possible configurations of steeringdiameter, brake systems (disc brakes had reversed our throughaxle dropouts), axle standards & build heights/wheel sizes.
further info and pics :
https://www.mtb-news.de/forum/t/type-2-gabel-information.949109/#post-17663751
Type II Fork
http://mail.stevepottscycles.com/
Regarded by many as the finest rigid fork ever built, the Type II fork is an original Charlie Cunningham design. Steve and Charlie are lifelong friends and have worked together on many projects that helped shape what mountain biking is today. The Type II has undergone a few updates that make it even more desirable than before; now offered with suspension adjusted geometry (leg length) and disc brake compatibility.
There are many schools of thought regarding mountain bike forks: How much travel? Suspension or rigid? Spring or air? Lock-out or not? Like most Marin County residents, Steve knows the terrain can be unforgiving, and a suspension fork can take the edge off a longer ride. But it was Charlie's Type II fork that created a cult following among rigid riders back in the day when suspension forks were in their infancy, and the Type II fork is still attracting devoted rigid off-road riders today. The proprietary fork crown and blade-to-tip taper provides a ride so smooth and lively you'll forgot what a suspension fork even does. The Type II fork certainly looks old-school in this day and age of motocross-looking suspension forks, but the ride proves otherwise. Ask Steve to build his signature fork for your Potts 29er, or consider having him build a replacement for an existing bike in your stable. The Type II is still available in a 1-inch threaded steerer with roller cam studs and extra wide spacing for the old-schoolers.
more build pics:
http://stevepottsbicycles.blogspot.com/2010/05/
Even though the first Type ll fork was a segmented design without the iconical sleeved fork crown to be developed shortly after in the early 80s, here its all about the actual building process, picture reference aswell as different makers details.. along with the history of the inherent design.
The secret of this fork design of course is taper baldes vs internal butting of said tubular blades.
However for some demanding riders as seen in a series of pics here, Charlie replaced legs sometimes with unbutted plaingauge material for aggressive DH use to become basically undestructable.
Other measures for specification were different length proportion of the actual crown tubing for the legs to slide in, visible at the distance between cut angles and brake bosses.
The Type l didnt predate the type ll fork in the making but it did in fact on paper as prototyping.
As local Marinate Gary Fisher heard of Charlie Cunninghams brakes, he wanted them on his own Ritchey Mountainbike. Charlie made the precision fit and the bike got even updated with one of his forks later on.
Why this information ? Well Fisher was so exited that he wanted to fund the construction of Cunninghams new fork in 1980 which then was applied for the first time in 1981 on Don Cooks bike who at the time apprenticed at the fairfax offhandmannor applied technology workshop of this trained aeronautical engineer.
After The forks were designed with the mandrel bend crowns (inner and outer guiding with proper heat treating necessary!) and socket sleeved tube blades, Charlie had another idea for an a even lighter fork crown ideally suited to light riders or long distance touring.
Fisher kind of "borrowed" the design by taking CC`s drawing to Japan (not telling him). Thats how the unicrown fork was born and the rest is history...
.. so it was left to Cunningham himself to later come back to his simple fork design thus additionally to the straight blade non tapering Type l fork on his first light weight aluminum mountain bike there was the chance to colaborate with the KOSKI brothers on new unicrown tubing after is introduction in 1983 when G.F. returned from Japan with the "new gauging". What Charlie mentions in his 1989 Cunningham offroad infopac is exactly that new slow tapering straight blade fork, he is ready to build labelled a Type lll.
As there is a type 3, there is also type 4 fork desiged by Charlie to his and Wtb bikes at the time for complete reference but thats another story. Later on Steve Potts passionately made Mini Type ll forks honoring his good friend and business partner back then.
Scot Nicol (Ibis)
Charlie designed it, and we went in together on batches of crowns (acquiring, tubing, bending, machining). We each did our own legs and dropouts and welding and silver brazing and such. No royalties were involved, Charlie just wanted people to be riding good forks.
Pics borrowed,
These are partly from Steves blog, facebook and instagram to showcase some of his work and craftsmanship.
Some other pics are Cuningham forks which in the beginning (just as with Steve, but CC was usually a few years ahead) had straight and then slightly pointy fork crown tips later on ...
The design of the fork is from CUNNINGHAM yet at the same time also exclusively used by Steve and Ibis with the latter sharing crown bends and making their own dropouts
There were also a few exceptions back then like Joe Breeze (T1), Otis Guy(T2), Mark Slate(T2), Ross Shafer (T2) and later on for some years Willits was making Typ 2 forks also with crowns from Potts, but lately its only Steve and sons, having the complete formula to make em legit and right.
Having been on the hunt for an old Type ll version to finish restoration of an American Breezer from 1989, it couldn't wait ordering a new fork from Steve only to have older style manufacture dropout details. None the less as long as he made them and you supplied old parts it could always be done he said.
The fork design was of course out there before 87, but is mentioned from there on in the Wtb catalogs and Mombat. Ibis claims to have made the fork as well since 84.
Steve had been collaborating with Charlie for that Type 2 forks as early as 1982.
The old order sheet to start the Album with was shared by a former client..
Crown fork design originally started out as a segmented version by Charlie Cunningham in around 1978/89 and went on to become a "R2-bend" (as used on the Gooseneck stems) cromoly sleeve tube and evolutioned out from fillet brazing and then became tig only for CCRs & Phoenixes.
Later (Funny enough Charlie as opposed to Steve finished his own tig welded crowns sometimes with some brass only upfront to give a more unified look).
As a nice contrast to some of Steves rare titanium bikes in the DIA series he made fully brazed corwns as a nice expensive lush contrast to the welded mainframes.
Over time the fork design has been executed in all possible configurations of steeringdiameter, brake systems (disc brakes had reversed our throughaxle dropouts), axle standards & build heights/wheel sizes.
further info and pics :
https://www.mtb-news.de/forum/t/type-2-gabel-information.949109/#post-17663751
Type II Fork
http://mail.stevepottscycles.com/
Regarded by many as the finest rigid fork ever built, the Type II fork is an original Charlie Cunningham design. Steve and Charlie are lifelong friends and have worked together on many projects that helped shape what mountain biking is today. The Type II has undergone a few updates that make it even more desirable than before; now offered with suspension adjusted geometry (leg length) and disc brake compatibility.
There are many schools of thought regarding mountain bike forks: How much travel? Suspension or rigid? Spring or air? Lock-out or not? Like most Marin County residents, Steve knows the terrain can be unforgiving, and a suspension fork can take the edge off a longer ride. But it was Charlie's Type II fork that created a cult following among rigid riders back in the day when suspension forks were in their infancy, and the Type II fork is still attracting devoted rigid off-road riders today. The proprietary fork crown and blade-to-tip taper provides a ride so smooth and lively you'll forgot what a suspension fork even does. The Type II fork certainly looks old-school in this day and age of motocross-looking suspension forks, but the ride proves otherwise. Ask Steve to build his signature fork for your Potts 29er, or consider having him build a replacement for an existing bike in your stable. The Type II is still available in a 1-inch threaded steerer with roller cam studs and extra wide spacing for the old-schoolers.
more build pics:
http://stevepottsbicycles.blogspot.com/2010/05/
