# Wolftooth B-RAD strap + bladed carbon fork



## Lithified (Apr 14, 2007)

Wolftooth recently released a cool option for mounting bases on your bike without braze-ons: https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/collections/b-rad-system/products/b-rad-strap-base

How do you think this would do on a bladed carbon fork? It would be cool to allow for a water bottle, but in lieu of that maybe lighter cargo only like my rain fly and underquilt. Do you think I'll rub the paint off the fork? Can only imagine yes....photo of bike in question below. Any different ideas for mounting to the fork?

Cheers


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## jcd46 (Jul 25, 2012)

Well, I won't be much help but thank you for posting that. It may work on my Krampus' seat tube!! :thumbsup:


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## Lithified (Apr 14, 2007)

I've confirmed with Wolftooth and Raleigh both that this is a horrible idea. Haha. Ok, so it goes.

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## Poolstick (Jun 8, 2009)

Why did they say it was a horrible idea?


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## Lithified (Apr 14, 2007)

From Wolftooth:
"Thanks for the message.* We have not tested the*B-rad Strap Base*for a fork mount and do not recommend using it on the fork.* With the the tapered blades it could potentially slip and wind up in the wheel.* The underside of the down tube may be a better option"

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Can't find the response from Raleigh but it was about the direction of forces on the carbon bladed fork. Sounded like a fairly standard CYA answer.

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## bakerjw (Oct 8, 2014)

I tried carbon rigid forks on a bikepacking build that I did. On typical gravel it wasn't bad, but anything even remotely chunky beat the living daylights out of me.

That all said. I picked up a Lauf fork. The last 2 years when I've ridden south out of Banff, I mounted a Cat Eye bottle holder on each side of the Lauf fork.









I use a piece of road tirse sized inner tube as a protective layer and use ty wraps to hold them in place. They don't appear to have quite as much taper as you have but they've never marred the surface. FWIW, I'd try that before picking up the straps unless you need to mount anything larger than a water bottle.

It is kind of hard to see on there, but I made some straps out of EPDM that loop at the top of the bottle holders and have holes that go over the spout of the water bottles. I've never lost a bottle since using them. Prior to that...


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## Flying_Scotsman (Jul 12, 2011)

I use gorilla mounts.... I can get 4 zip ties super tight on a steel fork and they are bomber.

gorilla clip - dom

YMMV but you need to be positive that your load wont shift or it could have bad consequences on such a tapered fork, one small movement and it will drop down the fork in the blink of an eye.

One of those would work well on the underside of the downtube perhaps?


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## vikb (Sep 7, 2008)

OP I can fit a 1.5L bottle/cage under the DT on my bikepacking bikes. It's a much better place to carry something heavy as it helps you bike's handling vs. making it steer like a bus and get knocked about in tight spaces or when you lean your bike on something.

I can't tell how much clearance you have on your bike under the DT, but that should work for you. Yes the bottle will get dirty if it's muddy, but you don't access it often so it's not a big deal and if conditions are really wet you probably won't need that extra water anyways.

I just used some hose clamps to attach the cage to the steel frame shown above and then wrapped with electrical tape to stop the sharp bits from wearing on my frame bag.

WT makes a nice kit that'll work on a more delicate frame:

https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/collections/accessories/products/b-rad-strap-base

When I first started bikepacking I tried dual bottle cages on the fork legs and hated it. I've skipped putting any gear there and never regretted that.


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## Lithified (Apr 14, 2007)

vikb said:


> OP I can fit a 1.5L bottle/cage under the DT on my bikepacking bikes. It's a much better place to carry something heavy as it helps you bike's handling vs. making it steer like a bus and get knocked about in tight spaces or when you lean your bike on something.
> 
> I can't tell how much clearance you have on your bike under the DT, but that should work for you. Yes the bottle will get dirty if it's muddy, but you don't access it often so it's not a big deal and if conditions are really wet you probably won't need that extra water anyways.
> 
> ...


Thanks vik - I ended up getting a couple of Topeak's Versamounts to mount a bottle under the frame and that worked great even on a 75mi very chunky gravel loop. Hate that utiliforks are so much coin.


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## lentamentalisk (Jul 21, 2015)

FWIW, using a strip of double sided foam tape (like VHB) would effectively prevent any slippage, while the zip ties or straps would prevent it from peeling. That is the technique that the BarYak fork mounts use. It was SUPER solid, letting me hold 40oz on each fork blade over some crazy chunky mountain biking on a cross bike. That said, the product becomes nearly permanent, and was a royal pain to remove (tons of WD40 were involved...)


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