What's it like riding rigid carbon forks?

P20":255825gs said:

I ran pace on the bonty, they 'fluttered' under braking, but were comfortable. Only advantage of the pace compared to other carbon forks is the fact there are some 1" out there. The build quality was poor, I had to shim the crown race.
I ran exotic carbons on the dialled. Stiffer than the pace, despite running bigger brakes. They are the same as bontrager, superstars, White bros, etc but cheaper. Probably not as comfy as the rigid steels on the P20, but a good fork.

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WD Pro":pq2j8s8t said:

P20":pq2j8s8t said:

I ran pace on the bonty, they 'fluttered' under braking, but were comfortable. Only advantage of the pace compared to other carbon forks is the fact there are some 1" out there. The build quality was poor, I had to shim the crown race.
I ran exotic carbons on the dialled. Stiffer than the pace, despite running bigger brakes. They are the same as bontrager, superstars, White bros, etc but cheaper. Probably not as comfy as the rigid steels on the P20, but a good fork.

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Just interested on the shimed crown race - was it not a JIS / campy compatability thing ? :?

WD

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Andy R":360t536d said:

From my experience, any claimed improvement in comfort/vibration absorbtion etc. is very overstated and you'd get more of an improvement from a biggish front tyre (2.35") run at low (20-25psi) pressure.
I think that well designed steel forks (Vicious Cycles, Salsa, Singular, whatever) give a more comfortable ride than any carbon fork, apart from probably the Niner fork, which I haven't tried.

The only advantage (IMHO) that those carbon forks which are constructed by bonding carbon tube to aluminium dropouts and crown give is a small decrease in weight over steel. I'd stay with steel forks and use carbon bars myself.

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