On Sep 29, 12:37*am, wrote:
...
When I took the wheel off, my heart skipped a beat. *Without much
effort, this is the result:

http://www.bitrealm.com/misc/fork/p1...k/p1000785.jpg

It was hanging by no more than 2mm of steeel. *I shudder when I
think of the roads I was about to go on, including one really
bad bump at the bottom. *I don't think it would have held together
and when you lose the front like this, it's going to be bad.

Lucky you caught it when you did. Last year, our old custom tandem
let go of both blades simultaneously. The warnings I got were nowhere
near as explicit as yours. Fortunately, we were moving only about 10
mph at the time.

In my case, the bike was built by Jim Bradford, formerly of the
Atlanta, Georgia area. It was the last bike he built before getting
married and leaving on a honeymoon. I suspect he slapped in whatever
fork blades he had lying around in order to get the job done, because
the wall thickness was roughly one-third of the proper gage for
Reynolds 531 tandem forks.

I wish I could offer advice on how to choose a competent and ethical
frame builder, but I can't.

BTW, I think you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a
replacement. I was able to buy a replacement tandem fork from Tandems
Ltd in Alabama. For a single bike I intend to build, just last year I
was able to buy a chromed Japanese fork from Citybikes in Portland,
Oregon. http://www.citybikes.coop/

- Frank Krygowski