What is an Ashtabula Front Fork?

[Robert Troub]

I see these bring big $$......so I'm parting out a 1981 Schwinn Tornado......these forks look exactly like a pair that sold on ebay.......did schwinn use a "different fork" on these bmx style bikes?
The fork looks like a standard schwinn stingray fork.....hence my confusion....your thoughts are appreciated

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

I believe at the end of the run Schwinn added some extra gusset welds on the top of there standatd fork to make it more ridged when cornering during BMX races. The flat blade flexed to much compared to the tube type fork. Schwinn was just about to start making more modern style and get away from astrabula forks. Some later forks had Astrabula on them even maybe even in the casting. i would believe both examples would be somewhat desirable. I'm no expert Birdzgarage knows a lot. There are a bunch of Schwinn guys who will know for sure. Good luck

 

[49autocycledeluxe]

pretty sure all the forks were ashabula forks... but they did make some heavy duty forks, stems and cranks that were embossed. here's a complete set. the fork has extra bracing.

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

pretty sure all the forks were ashabula forks... but they did make some heavy duty forks, stems and cranks that were embossed. here's a complete set. the fork has extra bracing.

View attachment 1362449

View attachment 1362450

Really nice set haha, no really those are awesome. Are there a lot of that stuff out there? I imagine they didn't make them for many years did they?

 

[49autocycledeluxe]

I really don't know much about them, I had an embossed Ashtabula goose neck on a Stingray back in the day. I had seen the forks but never knew they made a crank... these pics are from the internet.

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

Never seen the crank either. Learning every day.

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

I see these bring big $$.

Are the forks embossed? if so I'm interested

 

[birdzgarage]

The heavy duty ashtabula bmx stuff is completely different that any of the factory schwinn forged blade forks.its the embossed /stamped stuff that brings the cash.ashtabula may have made the forks for schwinn.i dont know.the heavy duty bmx forks have a brace under the crown.they are also oversize in length.a 20"fork is actually 24" dimensions to raise the bottom bracket for better pedal clearance.the 24" hd fork actually will fit a 26" wheel.a true 26"hd forkbwas never made.schwinn did the 24" black fork on the early scramblers but they were not braced.just a painted black 24" fork.

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

The heavy duty ashtabula bmx stuff is completely different that any of the factory schwinn forged blade forks

Do you know when the embossed stuff was first produced and for how long? roughly

 

[birdzgarage]

I think 76 was the first year for the fork.the 75 forks just had a decal.im pretty sure the stem and cranks the same.ive got some black embossed 80 dated cranks so at least till then.i also have some chrome plated chromoly 83 cranks with no external marks just on bb area.