Making a fork topper for the ICAN TRA01

Introduction

Shortly after I graduated from Chicago’s Lane Technical High School in 2010, the school chose to end its long-standing academic requirement of a manual drafting course. At the time, it had seemed like an outdated requirement before I took the class – one I put off until the last minute, taking it as a senior alongside the usual freshmen getting it out of the way early in their coursework – but I quickly found a sense of satisfaction in constructing a technical drawing as building a set of facts from each other. But however much I came to appreciate it, I had been part of the tail end of learning a dying skillset.

Around the same time, 3D printing was gaining popularity. For whatever reason, I didn’t have any interest in picking it up as a hobby. With other interests taking up my time, the idea of making things by printing them didn’t catch my interest. Having spent time with both manual drafting and CAD, it’s funny that I’ve avoided actually making anything until recently. Lately, though, I’ve started to solve problems with 3D printed parts, and part design has again struck a chord with me as a skill to develop further.

TRA01

For the past season, I’ve been racing track bikes at JBMV. There’s a whole thread I could go down about various technical aspects of this sport, but I’ll focus on the equipment side for now. Track cycling occupies a very particular intersection between standard and proprietary parts. On one hand, track bikes have hardly changed in their fundemental standards in the past 30 years. On the other hand, the impact of aerodynamics on performance means athletes seek every possible advantage and won’t hesitate to choose non-standard, quirky, and even problematic products when it fits the need.

Enter the ICAN TRA01, a frame with a standard steer tube but a proprietary fork fairing design and matching stem. The proprietary stem provides a “chin” of sorts, which nestles against the fairing to provide an integrated front-end to the bike. Of course, this is completely unnecessary if you extend the fairing upward with a plug or topper of sorts.

Why would you want to replace the stem? Well, besides being incredibly heavy, the proprietary stem is only available in 95mm and 75mm lengths, which is – to put it lightly – inadequate for most track cyclists today, even at the recreational level. For context, I run a 150mm stem on my TRA01. So a simple, non-structural fork topper solves an immediate problem for me in cleaning up the front-end of the TRA01.

Design

With a charcoal rub on a piece of paper and a bit of work with digital calipers to double check key dimensions against the fork fairing, I was able to get sufficient accuracy to produce a CAD drawing. Since I use a -6° stem, I built in a corresponding cutout relative to the steer tube angle.

Final part

I used a 3D printing service to print the part in nylon 12 with a black dye treatment. To my surprise, not only the external dimensions, but also the internals worked out flawlessly from the first draft. I was expecting to need some sanding and/or putty for the internal fit, but the first design resulted in a perfect fit that drops in with light pressure and holds firmly in use.

STL file

To print your own fork topper for the TRA01, you can use the STL file here.