I just put in an order for one of the looptail quad frames which means I'll be needing a set of Landing Gear forks for it. It seems to me I remembered seeing some members commenting (negatively) on the quality of the new Landing Gears. Can someone give me a quick outline of what the problems are/were?

Landing Gears are the only forks I can think of that directly contributed to the permanent disability of at least one amazing rider. But that was in the early 90's, and SE has changed hands at least twice (I think) since then.

Most of the negative comments on the new LG's were aimed at the general aesthetics, not neccessarily the durabaility of them.

D, all bike components can fail, sorry to hear about your friend. I still gotta think that they are stronger than those carbon forks everyone is running these days.

Stronger yes, but the carbon will impress the riders you don't like with all the money you spent. I love those older midschool Redline forks that look like they came off a motorcycle, you could jump almost anything and survive.

I think the complaints were more on the quality of the chrome.

theres some talk about the quality issues on page two of this thread:
http://www.vintagebmx.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...=9;t=001088;p=1

yes, workmanship issues. I am going to assume the strength is fine. Powdercoated forks hide the workmanship flaws more than the chrome.
Todd Lyons has a full report on what is lacking in the quality which he said will be addressed.

Personally, I'd hold off until actually seeing the quality of later forks this year. Maybe the PK project will get some killer workmanship on the LG? Definitely deserves it.

I have 2 sets of new LG with inferior workmanship but they do ride well. All Hail SE's Landing Gear!

Thanks guys!

On my OM Flyer 2004 model, the welding of the forks where the steerer-tube meets the top of the fork, the sleeve is quite badly welded. The welds look kinda flimsy. Heck,I would take bad finishing over a badly-welded fork anyday

The mishap below had nothing to do with the quality of the fork - more like the quality of the landing....The LG on my 2005 PK got slightly mis-aligned:




I'm glad I was running cro-mo and not carbon or alloy forks.

Was dat fork on your new skool black PK, Dugga?

Man, I'm having trouble comprehending how that can even bend in such a way? I would think the front wheel would shatter first. How did the axle fair?

I'd heard of catastrophic failures on Kastan struts but never actually saw one. Personally, I owned 2 at one time and never really had a problem with them.

That's pretty impressive, Dugga. Better check the head tube real well for cracks...after doing that to a pair of chromo forks, I'd worry about my aluminum frame.

Yes namza that was on my black 2005 PK .. the forks twisted round the front axle (hollow, FMF sealed hub) after coming down hard over a set of doubles. The axle has a very slight bend in it but I'm still using it. The frame is fine... no cracks but the lower headset bearing was a bit rough afterwards so I replaced it. I'm using the heavier gauge dropouts street / jump LG now with no probs.

That's so not nice to hear, DUGGA. Well, the most important thing is you're safe.

Damn, Dugga! Yeah, we have beefed up the fork legs since the '05's.