Reviving a sleeping bike frame

Hello, Sub the YouTube guy here.

I recently installed a cargo fork on y La Cabra.

This is a story of how a bike frame that no longer had a purpose, came back to life and became the “main bike” for me.

I bought my second La Cabra when they had a tweak to the geometry.

My first La Cabra ↓↓↓

My second La Cabra ↓↓↓

I used all my parts from the first La Cabra to build my second, so the first La Cabra frame was just hanging from the sealing at the shop.

Just like this ↓↓↓

The La Cabra is designed as a “drop bar MTB”, but you can still rip it in the trail with a riser bar.

My initial plan was to build two La Cabras. One with a drop bar and one with a riser bar. As time went by, I started to notice I was very satisfied with the drop bar build for my second La Cabra. I also already had a flat bar MTB, so I wasn’t so desperate for that sort of build.

I could have built the first La Cabra with a flat bar, but I knew I wouldn’t ride it so much since I ride my Alumalith, 90% of the time I go out to the mountain.

However, I just couldn’t leave the first La Cabra frame alone. It had always been somewhere in my mind.

One day, I thought about the Crust Clydesdale Cargo Fork…

I always commute with 10kg worth of video equipments. I even go grocery shopping after work with that huge bag, so I thought this fork was perfect for me. In fact, I don’t know why I didn’t think about having a cargo bike sooner.

Now I can revive the frame that’s been hanging up on the sealing. I can give it a second life!

Oh, I love when everything clicks together. Bikes are fun.

So there I was, getting busy with the cargo fork build.

(This plus a laptop is what I carry everyday)

Let’s start doing some research. Double check if the fork suites the La Cabra.

First off, there are 1″ and 1 1/8″ steerer size options for these forks. The La Cabra has a 1 1/8″ fork steerer.

Okay, it looks like they are in stock.

Here’s what the description of the product says.

“The Clydesdale fork is designed to replace a fork with an axle to crown of ~400mm with about a 72° HT angle”

 

Hmm, okay. Let’s take a look at the geo of my 16″ frame size La Cabra.

Fork Length : 425ｍｍ, HT angle : 70°.

Looks like both mesurments are a bit different. I wonder if it’ll work…

*From the description*

“If your axle to crown or head tube angle is a little different, not a huge deal”

Hmm, I’m not sure if the 25mm and the 2 degree difference is “a little different”.

Let’s keep reading the description.

” If your original fork is longer than 400mm, then the resulting angles with The Cargo Fork installed will be steeper and the bottom bracket will be lower. If your original fork is shorter than 400mm, then the resultant angles with The Cargo Fork installed will be slacker and the bottom bracket will be higher.”

“Generally, frame angles will all change by about 1 degree per 10mm of axle-crown length difference, and your bottom bracket height will change by about 5mm per 10mm axle to crown”

The orignal fork of the La Cabra are 25mm longer, so the HT angle will be 2.5° steeper and the BB will be 10mm lower. So the fork would be facing down?

If my math is correct, the HT angle should offset, making it 72.5°, so it’s fine…? It was too complicated, just by looking at numbers, so I decided to give it a shot.

The bike looked like this with 27.5 x 2.2″ rear tires and 20 x 2.0″ front tires.

Oh, Okay! That looks perfect!

It looks pretty level to me.

It was actually facing up a tad bit, but I think it’s a pass. Nice! All I need to do was throw on a basket and I’m ready to go!

I thought about putting the Milk Crates, but this bike is supposed to be my video equipment transporter, so I chose the Giant Delivery Basket.

The reason for this is that the basket fits my ILE ultimate photographers bag mk4 perfectly.

This has been my commuter for the past few weeks. The low center gravity makes it so easy to carry this heavy bag. I’ve carried this bag on 700C or 650B bikes, so it’s a huge difference. The steering is not too quick and floppy. I like it.

If I had to say something negative about the build, I would say that the bike feels slower. I think it’s just from the total weight being heavier and the fact that I now have a flat bar instead of a drop bar.

I mean, it’s a bike to carry big stuff, so speed is the last thing that I should worry about, but I just wanted to give my honest thoughts.

Anyhow, I’m very happy with this build.

This story about the Clydesdale fork on The Radavist was a great article by the way.

I love Crust’s unique products like this. It’s so cool that they make this type of niche products. It’s truly inspiring!

(Sub)