Compare your lives to mine…

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…then kill yourselves.

I recently came across a deal that was too good to be true. The On-One Superlight Carbon 29’er fork was on sale. I had been considering this fork for a while, but the exchange rate from Pounds Sterling to U.S. Dollars is something like waking up next to the fat ugly wingman of the girl your friend was hitting on drooling on your pillow. No getting away from the horror, and not easily forgotten, especially since you made the mistake of taking her home, not going to her place for whatever reason.

It sucks, in case you don’t have the time or inclination to check.

So when the SSWC was going down in Aviemore, the boys at On-One held a sale. I only knew about it because I signed up for their newsletter (more than once, but this time it worked…) and got an email informing me of some awesome deals. The fork, some of their Dinotte lights (I love them, but again… way too expensive for me to justify…) a complete, saddle who knows… it’s always worth a peek.

Anyhow I decided that at £99, I could just bite the bullet and get it. I wanted it and it was going to be one of the only two things I really REALLY wanted to get to make my bike as close to perfect as I had planned. (The other is a set of Industry9 singlespeed wheels.)

Delays in shipping suck and emails were written; then it arrived.

I opened it, got my bike-mech on and took it out for a ‘get acquainted’ spin finally. After 30 km or so I decided to write my first-ever product review.

Its light. In fact its about a 1/2 pound lighter than my stock Karate Monkey fork. I didn’t have problems with the stock fork, lest you get any ideas. It is a great fork, just a bit beefy. (I roll in at around 215 lbs, but more on that later…) I noticed right away how gorgeously this fork was made. The attention to detail is awesome. the tabs are machined out for your qr skewers, and they stay put even when loose. I had a hard time taking my wheel out in fact, they are so prominent. A good thing if you have old skewers that might come loose in a rock garden or if you forgot to tighten them in your excitement to get out on the trails.

They are stiff; in fact, they feel a bit stiffer than the KM fork. Maybe that’s because I am starting to get used to the flex inherent with a 29’er fork, but maybe not. The front end also felt/feels snappier. Again, this has as much to do with the geometry of the KM as it does with the Superlight Carbon fork. I am just an average Joe-Schmoe out for a ride. I’m not ‘Old skool’; I’m not a ‘Weight-weenie’. No, I’m just a guy who wanted a lighter fork and got a good deal. It feels like I can really whing it into and out of corners. It feels snappier and more responsive.

My ride consisted of 98% flat single and double track with some roots. I live right near Perlacher Forst, and on the weekends there are more than enough joggers, hobby cyclists, grannys out for a stroll and others to make it interesting. It is also big enough to get turned around in and not see anyone for an hour easily. If you look carefully, you can see some snaky single track running off from the paved and hardpack roads, but if you don’t look, you will never see it.

I did a flat track run from my place to Deisenhofen and back, snaking my way in and out of some of the hidden trails in the forest. My reason for heading down there was to find a dirt jump park which I did. It was a Wednesday (German Reunification day. It was a holiday and it was completely empty. I was shocked. In my day we would have had a case, a boom box and made an all-day session out of it.) On my way back I was doing a slow roll along some of the more populated parts, when I noticed there was a singletrack trail paralleling the more-used path I was on. Winding in and out of the forest, while other people rolled painfully slow, staring at me like i was a wildman coming to eat their young; It was a great run.

Allin all, I think this fork will stay on my 29’er for a long while. It has been rated with no weight limit, and I’m not some caveman, nor do I do anything really extreme. It is a hardtail rigid 29’er after all. More after I get more kilometers in.

—bikepunk

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About bikepunk

“Cuts, scrapes, bruises… all in a day’s riding. Then it’s off for some good german beer in a local biergarten.” Munich, Germany

8 Replies to “Compare your lives to mine…”

  1. I think everyone needs to enjoy life or not.. hehe
    really i think my SyCip cross bike has just really supported
    my little life.

    Peace all, and remember enjoy the RIDE.

  2. BP – here is my comparison…

    I had an opportunity to get on my favorite road machine last week and get in a great ride before the sun went down. Understand that is has been a long, slow season after a rotator cuff repair in July. I was finishing my ride with an uphill sprint, less than 1 mile from home, when I was launched off of a new speed bump installed, I assume, to promote safety on the access road that adjoins my neighborhood. I landed hard on the same shoulder and fractured my clavicle so badly that it required a Ti plate and 7 screws to attach the pieces together. My ride survived much better…I will replace the carbon bars when I can ride again…

    tschuess,
    Bobbo

  3. Tschuess is not acceptable in my Bayrisches household. But yeah, re-injuring yourself sucks. Period.

    Thank god you didn’t sign as ‘Dj Bobo’, or I’d have to delete your comment. (You know what I mean…)

    Gute Besserung.

  4. “singlespeeds are gay”

    Naw…..they ain’t gay.

    Just only useful to those who live in the flat-lands or are 10x tougher than me.

    Take your pick.

    ha ha

  5. …”beer has food value, but food has no beer value”…
    …betting if ya did hard time, you’d listen to that old guy w/ one eye. a limp & no teeth, when he teaches you to make ‘beer’ outa some kinda food…yum…

    …hey…bobbo, i got empathy for ya, man…like HEAL, bobbo, HEAL, for fricks sake,…but the rest of this carbon forks, beer, yer bikes gay, tee hee, no it’s not, tee hee, is just so much bullshit…

    …the real question::: WHERE THE FUCK IS BIG JONNY & WHY THE FUCK IS HE NOT POSTING ???…ya hear me out there, bucko, wherever ya be ???….how about a word from the one dark lord, yah ???…

    …there is little knowledge, & should be NO comfort when the leader goes missing…
    …ground control to major jon…