The story of a fork- from concept to completion

Trial fit of the Hotta fork on the Lotus. This fork is the basis of our integrated fork/handlebars

Laid out are the fork crown/steerer tube, fork legs, a,d handlebars (2 sets were being made)

Detail of fork crown and steerer tube, having been threaded

Checking the profile of the fork leg. Obviously aluminium can not necessarily be shaped to exactly imitate the carbon fibre. The main focus was on the aero shape, front to back

Ready to shape/add the fork tip

The bullets will form the back of the handlebar section

Starting to look like a proper fork, the legs are attached to the crown

Now we are getting somewhere. Fork tips attached

Apart from the aero handlebars, in this photo you can see the aerobar upstands, and the mounts for the aerobars

A lot of detail went into every part. The slots in the top are so the screws will ‘pull’ the alloy in, thus gripping the aerobars

On the bike, the integrated fork/bars have turned out much better than I could have hoped.

The first proper trial fit, once the bars were in the workshop

Mavic headset

I think the bars look fantastic from this angle

With primer on the frame, and fork, we start to see what it will look like

As with any ‘replica’, when you don’t have the measurements, you are not quite sure how things will turn out. It looks though, like out ‘guesstimate’, was pretty much on the money

Good from any angle

A one off mix, for a one off build

When your painter is a craftsman, he takes great pride in his art. Right down to smoothing out welds…..

just first layers of paint applied- finishing touches to come

So with colour on, we re starting to get a picture of what the finished product will look like

The side view shows us how clean the integrated forks and bars look