Lower crown race for 1.5" tapered forks

cults3d

Update: This has been the only crown race on both of my mountain bikes for about a year now and one has been on one of my wife's bikes for the past several months. It works. Saw the 1 1/8" lower crown race design by Jacques Dugal (http://www.thingiverse.com/quezz38/about) and thought it was an excellent use of 3D printing technology. Only problem is all of my forks are tapered so need a 1.5" lower crown race. (also known as a "baseplate", at least by Chris King) Such a simple design didn't require using the original, so I just drew it up from scratch. This will work with headset bearings with a 45 degree angle, which is most 1.5" lower bearings. Have printed in PLA (the red part) as well as ABS (the yellow) and both work wonderfully well. Fitment matches the original aluminum race on my Specialized Epic perfectly. Disclaimer: A bunch of folks were convinced Jacques' part would fail and the entire bike would disintegrate and the rider would die and people in the area would die and various other predictions of doom and gloom - but this is a piece in simple compression, so if it's printed solid, there's little chance of that - and even if it were to completely fail, at worst you'd have a very loose headset. That's it. As it is, Jacques confirms that his 1 1/8" design has survived several hundred miles of riding with no failure or appreciable wear. Of course, just like everything else on Thingiverse, if you don't feel safe printing and using it, don't. If you do print it and get something wrong and hurt yourself, that's on you.