On One Fatty Fork: Update

Saturday's ride was the harshest test of the On One Carbon Fatty Fork I have had yet. (By the way- for more on this fork from me, follow this link) The Beverly Park trails are fast, technical in spots, and there are berms, steep climbs and descents, and copious fast directional changes. You'll need great brakes, and climbing legs for the short, steep grunts. All this put a bigger stress on the fork than anything I can get locally.

There were a few things on my mind as I loaded up the Snow Dog for this trip.

• How would the straight, carbon 1 1/8th steer tube do on this rigid set up?
• Would not having a through axle show up as unwanted flex or by having the brake rotate the axle out of the drop out?



Surly's Bud fits up front fine on a Rolling Darryl rim

• Speaking of braking- Would the fork have any strange behaviors under heavy front brake use? 

Since I had gotten the fork, I had swapped in a set of Rolling Darryl wheels with the Surly Bud 26 X 4.8" tire up front and the "no-name" tire out back I got recently which is only slightly smaller than the Bud. The One One Carbon Fatty clears this combination well. Out back is another story! It only just gets by, but that's another story.......
 
The fork's geometry matches up here well. The 55mm off set on the fork let me steer without any heavy, sluggish feeling from the geometry, and allowed me to have plenty of control over all that rotating mass. The fork also features forward facing drop outs, so hard braking doesn't rotate the axle out of the drop out, instead it forces it back into the drop out. Smart design.

The fork was surprisingly rock solid under cornering and braking. If having a straight, 1 1/8th steer tube is a detriment, I couldn't feel it here. Hard braking felt normal. No shuddering, and it just tracked really straight and true. The tire nor the rotor rubbed in any way, which I have experienced with other wheel/fork combinations. Climbing was no issue up front either. No wandering of the front end on slow climbs.

Overall, I am quite happy with the purchase of this fork. I gained a benefit with less weight, and an easy handling front end which clears big tires and handles hard riding well. Good stuff here.