Tried commute on my old Claud Butler Urban 300 last Friday and in was a pretty pleasant 45 mins. In order to make it more efficient I have already dumped the suspension post it came with and next on the list are the "Metro" forks. They really aren't much cop (I know but when I bought it I didn't know any cyclists who could point out how pointless the forks could be but anyway) They are also fairly heavy so my assumption is that pretty much any rigid fork will be lighter. Ideally I would spend precisely nothing but I guess that is unlikely.

I am not sure what bargain to look for though as the current forks have a 460mm axle-crown measurement. How short can I get away with? It is not exactly twitchy at the moment 440mm asking for trouble?

Anyone? You might even be able to sell me something/offload some crap…

If they're 460mm un-compressed then by the time they sag a tiny bit there'll be hardly any more difference than a thinner or fatter tyre would make.

If you find the steering too twitchy you can stick a cheap biggish volume slick tyre on, won't make the rolling resistance too much worse… I even have a spare pair but I'm in NZ so the postage would be a bit too steep :-/

you could always get some 29er forks – they're often 460mm a-c but 440 shoudl be fine.

Jim-bob I meant that I could afford for it to be steeper I think but don't know how much of a difference say 20mm would make. Dug out the manual and it recommends 2-5mm of sag so not a deal in it. Might try holding them compressed to see how it feels actually. Hadn't thought of 29" forks either, thanks!

Orange F8 rigids – £55 new, 450 A/c I believe. Feel good on my GT hardtail.

Only issue I have with them is I'm struggling to find a full length commuter mudguard to fit as there is a fair amount of clearance.

DT78 – I switched to headset bolt and then used a small 'L' shaped bracket held onto the bottom of the bolt by a second nut so that I could run a guard closer to the tyre.

I don't run that fork anymore so I could sell you the headset thingy for £8 posted? You'd need to setup your own bracket arrangement though I binned mine.

Thanks DT78, they look good but only got V's on it at the moment and a non disc hub. Am sure the solution will find me… Or I will find it I guess.
Oh, and about £40 more than I really want to spend 🙂