It’s been an eventful fall riding season and the carbon forks from On One and Bontrager are still getting ridden and kicking along just fine. In the last update, I described how I had switched the Carbon Superlight onto the Inbred and the Bontrager Switchblade had found a spot on my Karate Monkey. The initial impressions have not changed, but I have a few additional comments.

My aim during this period was to test the lateral stiffness and steering precision of the forks in demanding singletrack conditions. The tracks were technical, rooty, and rocky in places. I found a few steep switchbacks and log piles to loft over as well. The soil conditions were mostly hardpacked dirt and sandy traps covered with leaves.

The performance of both forks was really top notch. These two forks are very close to each other in feel and tracking when they are matched properly to a complimentary front end. By that I mean that the offset and axle to crown measurement for each of these forks seems to be happier with certain bikes over others. I have a couple more test subjects coming to swap out these forks to which should make things a bit clearer in this regard. Until then, suffice it to say that it pays to research your bike/fork pairings before you buy.

A poor choice, (Bontrager Switchblade/ Inbred) will not perform as well as a better choice, (Superlight/ Inbred). Pay attention to axle to crown measurements. Some bikes are designed around a Reba fork, and will have a longer axle to crown measurement than say a bike designed around a White Brothers fork. Then you have 80mm suspension corrected versus 100mm susppension corrected. It can be a bit confusing, but a little patience and studying of choices will pay off.

Just to review a bit, the Superlight fork still displays a bit better braking performance than does the Switchblade. The Switchblade seems just a bit more flexy, but not enough to really set it apart from the Superlight, which is a great riding fork too. Again, you can’t go wrong with either fork. Just pay attention to the details.

Look for both forks to find new homes soon. I’ll be back with results in a month or so, depending on how kind our winter is!