Rawland Cycles, the company that bowed in last year with a line of 650B bikes, has always had this bi-plane crowned fork that I just love. There is just something about a plate crown or bi-plane crowned fork that gets me every time. Maybe it is just me……but I bet there are more of you out there like me!

So, I was tickled to learn about a new project that one of Rawland’s designers, Ben Witt told me about. It was a prototype steel fork for 29″ers that utilized the Pacenti fork crown and was to be disc only. Awesome! Even better…..Rawland sent me one to check out! Thanks guys!

The fork was sent to me to check out and give my impressions on. Since Interbike, Rawland has decided to go ahead with production of this fine looking steel fork and Sean Virnig, head honch at Rawland, gave me the green light to talk about it. So here is a short preview of what you might expect from the production version of the Rawland steel bi-plane crowned fork.

The fork seems to weigh about what I would have expected. I think it ended up being 1290 grams with an eight inch steer tube and star nut installed. When installing the fork, I noted that the disc mount was a bit off, making the caliper hard to align correctly over the rotor. In the end, I made it work, but just barely. (Production forks will address this issue and it shouldn’t be a problem) The 180mm rotor clears the fork leg by about a millimeter. Pretty close, but it works. A 160mm rotor would have plenty of room, but really, it only needs to clear the leg, so it wasn’t a worry.

Out on the trail I noticed the fork being stiffer than you think it might be by the looks of it. The compliance that was there was mostly coming from the fork crown area. I could get the fork to flex rearward only about ¾’s as far as most of the carbon forks I’ve tried, but not unlike the Willits W.O.W. fork, it springs back with some authority! In fact, I thought this fork acted in a very similar manner to the Willits in several respects.

The fork is smooth and “quiet”. I was wondering what it was that seemed odd about the fork and after awhile it dawned on me. The carbon fiber legged forks transmit noise better. Trail noise, and especially braking noises. I couldn’t hear my pads on the rotor at all with this Rawland fork. Quiet! I never thought about it until later, and even the Willits fork is noisier. Perhaps it’s the mass of the bi-plane crown that kills the high frequencies? Those old steel road bike builders must have known a thing or two, I’m thinking.

Anyway, I pushed it kind of hard for a bit, and really, other than the quirk with the rapid rebound after hard braking, this fork is stellar! I would say that for guys doing XC to light trail riding, this should be a fork you look at. Of course the looks are off the charts, but I like plate/bi-plane fork crowns! It matched up well with my Salsa El Mariachi and if anything, was a bit smoother than the stock fork. Certainly it is on par with it as far as ride feel. Again, only the “rebound effect” keeps it from being identical to the Salsa fork. That and weight: the stock Salsa fork is a touch lighter at 1090 grams.

So, if Rawland addresses the caliper mount, as they say they will, I can not see much to dislike about this fork. To be sure, it is mostly about the look, but it does have an interesting ride quality. (Anybody lucky enough to have ridden the old Bridgestone bi-plane forks will know what I mean here.) The fork shouldn’t be looked at for anything other than XC/light trail duty. Used in the correct terrain, this fork is very nice. It plays well with disc brakes, has great lateral rigidity, and looks killer on the right bike.

Rawland hasn’t set an availability or price yet on this fork, but stay tuned here or on their site for further updates.