# Slotted forks date



## slcurts (Jul 16, 2022)

When did it finally occur to someone that slots in the front forks would make it a whole lot easier to put the wheels on? I've never seen a date for this.


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## stezell (Jul 16, 2022)

I don't know when, but I've got a 1897 men's roadster with a slotted fork.

Sean


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## slcurts (Jul 16, 2022)

stezell said:


> I don't know when, but I've got a 1897 men's roadster with a slotted fork.
> 
> Sean



What brand? Or from where? I have bikes later than that with no slots, and I'm pretty sure I've seen unslotted ones well into the 20s.


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## stezell (Jul 16, 2022)

It's a Clipper badged Grand Rapids MI Cycle Co. bicycle. I'm in the process of removing the black over paint. 

Sean


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## slcurts (Jul 17, 2022)

stezell said:


> It's a Clipper badged Grand Rapids MI Cycle Co. bicycle. I'm in the process of removing the black over paint.
> 
> Sean
> 
> View attachment 1663646



I wonder if those slots were cut later? That’s something I sure would have done after I saw them elsewhere.


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## stezell (Jul 17, 2022)

I know @Rambler has the ladies version of my bicycle with open end forks as well. 

Sean


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## slcurts (Jul 17, 2022)

stezell said:


> I know @Rambler has the ladies version of my bicycle with open end forks as well.
> 
> Sean
> View attachment 1664246



I was just at a bike show with bikes from 1890s-1920 and not a single one was slotted; one of the experts there said he thought they started doing it pretty close to 1930. It's wild that a company thought to do it in 1897 and no one else copied the idea for 30 years!


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## GTs58 (Jul 17, 2022)

slcurts said:


> I was just at a bike show with bikes from 1890s-1920 and not a single one was slotted; one of the experts there said he thought they started doing it pretty close to 1930. It's wild that a company thought to do it in 1897 and no one else copied the idea for 30 years!




Somewhat similar situation with the change in 1940-46 when the rear fork ends became a rear fork end drop out.


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## stezell (Jul 17, 2022)

I was just posting mine, nothing else. 

V/r 
Sean


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## Blue Streak (Jul 17, 2022)

The following bicycles in my collection have slotted front forks:

1891 New Mail cushion tire safety
1892 Common Sense pneumatic safety
1892 Monarch pneumatic safety
1893 Winton Men pneumatic safety
1893 Winton Women pneumatic safety
1894 Crescent Men pneumatic safety
1894 Crescent Women pneumatic safety

All of my other bicycles are pre-1908 and do not have slotted front forks.


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## The Carolina Rambler (Jul 17, 2022)

I'll chime in and use a couple of examples I have.  This is something I have noticed and speculated about as well.  I have a men's and women's pair of 1897 Cresent bicycles, and both of them have slotted forks.  If I was to guess regarding the early innovation and design of bicycles, it would have been the most sensible to build forks with slots instead of holes, just like on the rear stays and for the same reasons, but I can only assume that perhaps there was a reoccurring incidence, or at least fear of, the front bolts failing or being insufficiently tightened, and the wheel flying loose, in the years following the 1890s.  So as a safety feature, it was the general standard to build bicycle forks with holes and not slots, despite the difficulty of mounting a wheel.  But then sometime between about 1935 and the late 30s to 1940, I am guessing is when slotted forks became standard, when bicycle equipment and hardware was perhaps consistently of a higher quality and less prone to failure of any kind than on earlier machines, which is why the slot design was finally acceptable and deemed safe.  I draw this conclusion in part, because I have both a 1935, and a 39 Colson bicycle, and even on the 35, the forks are still not slotted.  I've seen other similar examples as well, but this is all just an educated guess on my part.  That would be my guess regarding that.

Even in modern times, there is a fear amongst manufacturers of the front wheel becoming loose or failing, which is why most all bikes available new currently are equipped at the very least with a seat of tear-drop shaped, hooked, safety locking washers to prevent involuntary dismounting of the front wheel.


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## Archie Sturmer (Jul 17, 2022)

Holes might have been *cheaper* than slots?
It’s interesting that Westfield in the 1920’s or so, had one slotted fork and the other drilled for through-hole mounting, (and Westfield would also assume the G&J Rambler line).

Regulations, *16 CFR 1512.12 Requirements for wheel hubs*, codified the requirement for a locking feature front forks/hub (Dec. 22, 1978; a long time ago, when gas prices and inflation were high).

"All bicycles *shall *meet the following requirements:
*(c) Front hubs*. Front hubs not equipped with lever-operated quick-release devices shall have a positive retention feature that shall be tested to assure that when the locking devices (e.g., axle nuts) are released the wheel will not separate from the fork". 
[Effective May 11, 1976].


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## dnc1 (Jul 18, 2022)

On European bikes I don't think I've seen a bike with closed dropouts on the forks that is dated after circa 1910.
This is just a personal observation though.


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## PapaPengin (Jul 18, 2022)

Just built a new set of wheels for a newly acquired 1937 Lincoln. Went to swap wheels and find that the fork is slotted on one side and a hole on the other. Not fun to remove or install, but probably easier than just having 2 holes.


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## Rambler (Jul 18, 2022)

stezell said:


> I know @Rambler has the ladies version of my bicycle with open end forks as well.
> 
> Sean



In addition to my Clipper Cycle that Sean mentioned, all of my National Cycle, Bay City bikes or those that I have seen all have slotted forks from 1895 to 1916 when production ceased.


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## slcurts (Jul 18, 2022)

PapaPengin said:


> Just built a new set of wheels for a newly acquired 1937 Lincoln. Went to swap wheels and find that the fork is slotted on one side and a hole on the other. Not fun to remove or install, but probably easier than just having 2 holes.



That actually seems like a great compromise between safety and being able to get the wheel out.


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## mongeese (Jul 18, 2022)

When I was younger I ran with a lot of slots.


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## ccmerz (Jul 18, 2022)

mongeese said:


> When I was younger I ran with a lot of slots.



Especially when you decided to close end.


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## PapaPengin (Jul 19, 2022)

slcurts said:


> That actually seems like a great compromise between safety and being able to get the wheel out.



That front wheel is NOT going to fall off. Even if the axle nuts were to loosen.


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## slcurts (Aug 2, 2022)

So it seems the answer is that there were slotted forks in the early 1890s (and I would guess sooner), then it looks like most but not all companies stopped using them, until the late 30s when everybody went back to them.


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## Chadillac (Aug 2, 2022)

My 1935 Hawthorne has one slot and one hole.


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## Kurt S. (Aug 2, 2022)

1896 Victor (and Victoria) bicycles had slotted front forks

(My guess; mid to late1860's would be the earliest slotted forks on the earliest of bicycles)


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