Come the end of the month (payday) I am going to be buying a cheapish cromo fork for a singlespeed cyclocross budget build (not racing!).

Looking for something with disc compatibility and a decent bit of boing. Trying to build a light bike but willing to sacrifice weight gain in the case of the fork.

Got an aluminium rigid fork onmy MTB – don’t like it.

Can’t afford carbon.

any opinions appreciated (I may regret not adding a caveat to that)

Ride a couple of early 90s bikes with cromo forks and love the feel.

So my question is: Is the Croix de fer fork better than the offerings from on-one? The prices are all £50-60 so that is not an issue. I want the friendliest fork.

It will be ridden lightly offroad.

Nowt wrong with a Kaff fork.

Might have a carbon fork, disc or vee…. Chinese jobby, subject to lbs getting the crown race off it tomorrow. Email me if you want pics etc 😀

I’ve heard some of thos chinese carbon forks have a harsh ride…have you ridden on the fork yourself?

Yes, rode them off and on road and had no issue with them. Fitted to a surly crosscheck but decided I’m going proper old school with cantis and all steel….

hmm, thinking about it, but I reckon I’m edging towards steel anyway. let me know how you get on with the crown race (as it’s not a cartridge bearing I reckon most will be compatible) as I have a smoothie awaiting my new fork. pls post “now sold” if you get another buyer; I would appreciate that.

Hi Mick,
TBH I cant offer much by way of comparison between different CX fork materials – Ive got a steel pompetamine fork on the pompetamine and had the same on the pompino until I swapped that for a planet X carbon road fork.

The A-C is so short though Im not sure there’s a whole lot of sproing in them whichever material you go for. My experience of riding rougher trails (q.v. the Cevennes thread) is that drop bars and how you use them have a far greater effect than any theoretical suspension in a rigid material.

When youre ragging around on skinny tyres, drop bars and 700c forks, no material in a rigid fork is going to do much to compensate for rough ground. You;ll have to do that on your own.

For the relatively small cost of a pompetamine disk fork, Id start there.

Appreciated, stoner. FWIW, I already have the midge on standby (along with some very attractive, flower-embossed bar-tape).