My Raven Tour came with a biplane fork with L1 = 410mm but shorter unicrown forks with L1 = 370mm appear to have been an option - reference from Test of Raven Tour on SJS website.  ‘Our Tour came with twin plate 531 ST forks…….a shorter 531 fork is also an option’

If it works for you, it works, I remain sceptical that the designer ever intended for forks of that difference to be fitted. It's the equivalent of a 2 degree head tube angle change, and the resulting difference in trail, I'd notice that.
However, that wasn't my point. Which was the forks were 410mm because that's the length the designer wanted them to be, not because of the crown chosen.  He probably chose that length as it offers the option to swap out for short travel sus forks.
The Raven Sport had considerably different geometry, the shorter fork had the option to be swapped out for an off the peg carbon fork.  When the Tour and Sport merged into the Raven, the 370 cast crown fork was kept and the 410 twin plate dropped.

On a loaded Nomad ( 45 x19 ) I did 46.6km downhill on Ardnamurchan in May. Still love the adrenaline rush and utter folly 😂

I only do the fast downhills on my derailleur bikes, not my Rohloff bike.  Ratio of chainring to sprocket in top gear on my road bike is 50/12.  My two derailleur touring bikes is 46/11, and my rando bike is 52/11. 

But if I am going down a long hill, I let my cadence drop to a slower pace to relax and let gravity do the work. 

The only time I put effort into pedaling on a downhill is if I am going down into a valley and several seconds later I will be pedaling up a steep hill on the other side.  On those occasions I do that to help maintain momentum on the uphill.

Quote from: jul on July 27, 2026, 08:55:06 PM

For information, 36x16  transmission,  aboie 33km/h you can no longer pedal, sometimes it’s frustrating

Depends on your pedaling cadence.

I generally pedal relatively fast at about 90 rpm (tours par minute). With a 36x16 combination that translates into 36 km/h, which is way above a sustainable speed for me on the level, unless I have an exceptionally strong tail wind.

If necessary I can increase pedal cadence for very short periods. With a 36x16 combination at 120 rpm in the highest gear that would be 48 km/h. In practice, that kind of speed is not really useful for me, except perhaps when I negotiate medium size roundabouts, where I feel safer if I am doing roughly the same speed as most of the motor vehicules. 

My current highest gearing on any of my bikes is 42x19 on my Rohloff equipped Raven Sport Tour. I use that bike mainly for day rides with little luggage. Top gear with 42x19 is slightly lower than with a 36x16, the maximum speed I managed recently when pedaling (downhill) was 53 km/h at 137 rpm, just to see if I could still do that at age 69. But normally I would just stop pedaling and coast down the hill.

Yep, i did a mistake, 36x16 transmission, you can ride max at 43 km/h..

At 47km/h you pedal as a salade drainer

Ian, a time-honored way to remove rounded socket screws is to pound in the next larger size Torx bit. The damaged screw usually twist out easily with this method.

Best, Dan.

I have never heard of that.  That is BRILLIANT.

Ian, a time-honored way to remove rounded socket screws is to pound in the next larger size Torx bit. The damaged screw usually twist out easily with this method.

Best, Dan.