FORK Reviews

Rigid vs. Suspension:  We here at Off Camber prefer rigid forks for our bikes...Singlespeed or those other types of bikes.  There's no denying that rigids are lighter (maybe the Surly forks are the exception to this rule), more responsive to turning, tracking, and pulling up the front wheel over obstacles all of which makes your bike funner to ride.  Yes, funner.  You can take the suspension route, and we all have, and get a smoother ride on some rocky trails, but OVERALL, a rigid is a better ride we believe.  Try it out and we think you'll agree.  BUT remember one thing: all rigid's aren't created equally.  You need to watch out for a few things.  A good rigid fork is (1) Steel or Titanium.  do not try an aluminum fork...that is way TOO rigid.  I hear that there is potentially a Carbon fork coming out for MTBs, but I haven't seen it or ridden it, (2)   suspension adjusted.  You need to make sure that the rigid fork is adjusted to be the same or similar axle to crown race length as the suspension for the frame was "meant" to be ridden with.  All (or almost all) frames these days have adjusted their geometry to work specifically with suspension forks.  This means they ride higher in the front to deal with the suspension fork's inherent SAG.  A good rigid fork simply adjusts for this height difference and gives the bike a smoother ride (basically by increasing the head tube angle),  (3) has some suppleness to the ride...this is why it must be Steel or Titanium, and lastly it (4) must not shudder.  It is also nice if it's not over $300 retail.  We don't review those highly priced forks since we can't afford to buy them and test them!  (i.e., Morati.).  Forks are rated on a scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being the BEST.
Surly rigids:
Don't do it.  I don't care how cheap they are.  There's a reason for it.  I've ridden both the Karate Monkey fork (2.59 lbs.) and the 1x1 fork (2.34 lbs.) and they both are too heavy and non-forgiving.   (they suck.)  sorry Surly.  I hate your forks.  They have no give & weigh almost as much as a suspension fork.  I can't stand them.  The good part is they are really cheaply priced if you want one for a town bike or commuter.  But I seriously don't recommend these for Off-Road mountain biking.  Dirt road? ok.  But if you hit washboards your hands will get rattled off the bars.  I rate these forks a 5.

Fat Chance Yo Eddy copy:
This is the first fork I bought.  It cost me about $190 with a 'deal.'  I believe, however, that they are no longer available.  This is unfortunate.  These forks have straight gauge fork blades and a crown just like the Yo Eddy of the old days.  The main differences lie in the tube diameter and that this new fork is suspension adjusted to the height of 80mm suspension forks such as the old blue SID's of a few years back.  The tube diamter is 1" so is more supple than the old Yo Eddy forks which used 1 1/8" tubes.  This is noticeable in the ride.  You can see a slight foreward and back motion as you go over bumps if you look directly down at your front tire.  There are no "lawyer tabs" either on this fork which is nice--this enables you to pull off your front wheel faster by not having to unscrew your skewer at all.  It is a VERY clean fork, with the welds and paint being very high quality.  I heard from Pete Webber that these forks are made by the old welder from Fat Chance up in a garage in Vermont in a limited quantity.  There are even two Yo Eddy head stickers on the top of the fork blades.  It weighs about 1.7 lbs.  I give this a rating of a 7. 

Independent Fabrications "No Travel" fork:
This is the second fork I bought.  It cost about the same as the Fat Fork but is a much different design.  The fork blades taper like traditional "cyclocross forks".  The fork blades are welded at the steerer crown and taper down to be pretty a pretty small diameter at the dropouts.  I believe this fork weighs about 2 lbs.  It isn't the lightest fork, but rides very nice.  It is pretty stiff which means it doesn't shudder, but you pay for the stiffness in it's ride quality.  I like this fork but I like the Spicer better.  The IF fork is suspension adjusted for only one lengh also...430 I believe.  (The IF website doesn't give a lot of info on these things.)  Overall, I rate this fork at an 7.

Spicer Cycles Titanium:
This fork rocks.  For viewing pleasure: www.spicercycles.com.  It is supple, it is light.  It flexes...almost TOO much actually.  It is Ti and has the cool look and feel of a straight blade fork.  It's similar to a Yo Eddy made with Titaium.  These are however made in China and therefore not homegrown.  Spicer farms these out to China so that is why they can only charge you $250 for one.  This isn't necessarily bad, just depends on your persuasion.  It weighs 1.3 pounds at the MOST.  It has 1 1/8" fork blades and rides very smoothly over washboards and basically anything.  It's comparable in price as well to most high end rigid forks.  I recommend this fork.  If you're worried about it being too light and breaking...I have heard that only 1 in about 400 forks has been found to have a crack in it.  It was nothing catastrophic...just a hairline crack.  Spicer replaced it for free.  It comes in non-suspension or two suspension adjusted lengths (395mm, 430mm or 450mm).  The 430mm is for 80mm travel suspension fork adjusted frames, and the 450mm is for 100mm suspension adjusted frames.  This fork doesn't shudder at all even though it is so forgiving.  Overall, I rate it an 8.

UPDATE:  a local pilot has some input on the Spicer fork...here is his email to me:
"The Spicer (aka Xian Changda) forks suck ass - I've personally snapped _2_ of them in half THIS YEAR, and my roommate (who is, admittedly, a trials rider and hence a bit rough on gear) broke his as well. If you want to ride fast on rocky stuff (and keep in mind, I weigh 145 lbs) the things are disposable. I do also ride with a Hopey damper, though, so I'm not so inclined to go around a lot of the rocks."

MTBR discussion board has more reviews as well:

http://forums13.consumerreview.com/crforum?127@16.nkgkafQgW7T.1@.ee7b974