Materials
Forks have been made from steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, titanium, magnesium, and various combinations. For example, a fork may have carbon fiber blades with an aluminum crown, steer tube, or fork ends.
In rigid forks the material, shape, weight, and design of the forks can noticeably affect the feel and handling of the bicycle. Carbon fiber forks are popular in road bicycles because they are light, and also because they can be designed to lessen and absorb vibrations from the road surface.
There have also been examples of wooden forks. However, these have not been common in the modern era.
Read more about this topic: Bicycle Fork
Famous quotes containing the word materials:
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“He was no specialist except in the relation of things.... He took most of his materials at second hand.... But no matter who mined the gold, the image and superscription are his.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“In daily life what distinguishes the master is the using those materials he has, instead of looking about for what are more renowned, or what others have used well.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)