I’m looking to make my gravel bike more upright and because it employs an unusual steerer tube size (GT Grade V1 1.25” taper, versus more common 1” straight or 1.5” taper steerers) I haven’t been able to find forks that could let me run a longer steerer tube. This leaves the stem and bars as the only way to reduce the bending over that my bad back can’t handle. I barely ride it anymore and end up setting off a back crisis at least half the time, keeping me stuck in bed for weeks.

I already use a 70mm/10 degree Thomson riser stem and am ordering some inexpensive higher rise short stems to see how that works for me. The main thing I want to change is the bars: currently 46cm Salsa Cowbell Deluxe with mild flare and fairly normal drop.

What I’m hoping for is some rise, mild flare, and short drop to reduce the bending angle I ride at. But there are so many gravel bars on Ali…only a few with rise and so far none that I can find with short drop.

Any suggestions? Alloy and carbon are both fine.

This is a frequent topic of discussion in other threads and I’m thinking about building up 1-3 FM1001 frames for my family in the next year (as well as one for myself eventually if I’m lucky; I already own a 1002 and am planning to build a 1003 this winter).

I usually over-fork my bikes by 10mm compared to how they are sold stock (and I like a nice upright cockpit about level with my saddle), but I’m learning that the FM1000 series doesn’t necessarily need that. They’re already well balanced bikes with fairly tall head tubes whereas in the past a lot of branded bikes were intentionally sold under-forked in their first year or two so the next year’s models could be “upgraded” with 10mm more fork travel.

Do you run your 1001 with 150 or 160 travel? I originally considered 160 for any size Large frames I built or more aggressive riders (like myself), but now that I’ve been thinking about lowering my FM1002 to 160mm — the idea of having anything but the tallest possible fork on any MTB would have been heresy to me in the past — I thought I’d poll 1001 owners and get everyone’s thoughts on this.

A number of unbranded frames, notably from Flybike/Carbonda, come with relatively unusual headsets that are 1.5” on both the upper and lower bearings, and often have spacers in the upper bearing that create room for internal cable routing through the headset (even if you don’t get the optional cap with an opening for cables).

I own a Carbonda FM1002 and worry that aggressive enduro style riding/jumps will eventually bend or break that upper spacer. It would also be nice to have high quality bearings from a trusted brand and a lighter cap, as the Carbonda supplied headset cap looks like it was made from pig iron.

Can anyone suggest big brand and “China” brand options for replacements? I can’t seem to find much with a casual web search, partly because “1.5 inch headset” seems to be too generic a term and many tapered headsets come up. My preference would be for headsets that have a stronger/thicker upper bearing spacer than the Carbonda OEM, or fill the entire upper race with a larger bearing that needs no spacer.

Here’s one of the only examples I’ve found and I’m not 100% sure it’s compatible with the FM1001/1002 head tube….

https://us.ritcheylogic.com/us_en/bike/headsets/comp-cartridge-integrated-is-1.5-upper-headset

In the FM1002 thread a couple of us have been talking about possible replacements for the heavy, mediocre quality original 8x40 steel shock bolt and I decided to order a couple of BetterBolts 8x40 shock bolts that they normally sell as part of some of their Transition shock hardware kits.

As I hoped, they seem to fit great and the only difference in shape is a slight protrusion of one side, maybe 2mm further out of the rocker arm than the stock bolt. Not a problem.

All you have to do is email support@betterbolts.com to make the request for an individual bolt, and cost for each was about $15 USD.

I’m placing an order for a 1002 and noticed that the included headset comes with what looks like a carbon plug instead of a regular star nut and top cap.

In my experience with Carbon steerer tubes, these can work themselves loose with hard riding and are a little heavy.

Can I just use a regular top cap and star nut with this headset or is the expanding plug required for some reason (I can’t imagine why)?

And while we’re at it, is there anything else I should know about this headset? The ~270-degree internal collar (with space for cables to be routed through even though I’m not getting the internal routing version and will just be using the head tube routing ports on the frame) is a little unusual…

I have persistent problems with my current Chinese carbon fat bike fork and its carbon plug loosening over the course of snow season due to the shearing forces of the snow pushing/twisting on the fork. So I’d like to get something with an alloy steerer….which is unusual for affordable carbon solid forks.

So I’m looking at suspension forks, and I don’t want another Bluto. Found my last one (now dead with a shattered integrated lower bushing) pretty underwhelming, particularly in the cold. Mastodon Pro EXTs are basically nonexistent AFAIK. Which brings me to the inverted option.

There’s Wren with an improved damper, cold tolerant replacement damper option, and keyed stanchions for stiffness since there’s no arch. I also happen to know Kevin Wren through social media but wouldn’t ask for a discount in these crazy times. A very similar but cheaper version of the same fork body is sold by DNM.

Anyone have experience with either the Wren or DNM versions or both? I’ve heard the DNM is halfway decent but would like more first hand experience. Can’t find many reviews online.