The One One Carbon Superlight fork and the Bontrager Switchblade Race X Lite fork are still getting ridden and I wanted to give my update on what’s been going on.

First off, the On One fork has been back on the On One Inbred 29″er and it’s obviously a great match up. The thing about these forks is that they have a 47mm offset, and that is not going to be a great match up for some bikes in some types of terrain. With the On One fork/ bike combo however, it’s a great riding set up. I wanted to see if the fork had any tendencies for lateral flex in off camber situations and in high compression, “g-out” type cornering. I’m glad to report that it didn’t exhibit anything of the sort. It steered precisely and still gave me the nicer ride quality over that of the originally equipped Superlight steel fork.

One thing that may or may not be an issue for certain brake set ups on the Carbon Superlight is rotor clearance. The rotor on my Avid BB-7 is tight, but it clears. Perhaps there is a rotor/caliper/hub combo out there that might be a problem. Just a paranoid thought perhaps, but the clearance doesn’t leave much wiggle room.

The Bontrager Switchblade Race X Lite has made it over to my Karate Monkey single speed. The Karate Monkey was designed with the 38mm offset suspension forks in mind, so the match up has been a good one. The Switchblade mimics a slightly sagged out 80mm suspension fork with it’s 465mm axle to crown measurement. That has steepened the head angle of the Monkey ever so slightly, as the Monkey’s axle to crown height with the original steel fork was 470mm. This has had the effect of giving the Monkey a very slight difference in handling. I can discern a bit of a different feel in steering, a bit happier to carve a tighter arc perhaps. Also, it seems a little more reluctant to loft the front wheel when I want. There was a slight increase in handle bar height with the Switchblade, and of course, the steeper head angle is going to put a bit more weight on the front end, but just a bit.

Overall, I’d say the Karate Monkey/ Switchblade pairing is far better than the On One/ Switchblade set up. The handling on the Monkey is still well within the parameters of what it was with it’s original steel fork, but I lost a bunch of weight, and gained a smoother ride. The braking, steering precision, and lateral stiffness are all on par with the original fork. Conversely, the On One never really got on as well with this fork for my riding style and terrain. I can imagine the On One/ Switchblade set up being okay for fast fire road, or wide open, sweeping curved trails. But for the tight, techy single track I ride, it wasn’t an ideal set up.

It seems more apparent as the testing goes on that both forks are really nice, you just need to be careful what you put them on! More to come!