Originally Posted by
gthomson
What about a carbon fork which comes on most newer aluminum bikes, does that have a big impact on the ride? I have a few steel bikes, a few chromoly bikes and 2 aluminum road bikes with carbon forks. I find my 2013 Cannondale CAAD 8 to be a pretty smooth ride but my Peugeot with 453 Reynolds steel is also super smooth. I have a gas pipe steel bike which is not smooth and very heavy.
I've never ridden a carbon bike so can't speak to it.
What you said is indeed a problem, I can understand an aluminum bike coming with CF fork because AL fork is far too weak to safely ride on for a long period of time. Also on TI bikes that's all you'll find is CF forks, while they do make TI forks bike manufactures look at the cost of a TI fork vs a CF fork and opt out of using TI forks, plus a TI fork would have to be thick and large in diameter otherwise it's too noodly, which in turn would make it weigh as much as a steel fork, and buyers don't want the weight.
I personally, don't trust my arse to be on a CF bike, with CF wheels, I've known people who's CF stuff broke just riding, even my mechanic at my local bike shop won't buy CF. However, on my Lynskey I have a CF fork, which I had the original one replaced back when I bought it for a Enve 2.0 because at the time that fork was rated to carry the most weight at 350 pounds intended to be used on tandem bikes (if I remember correctly the weight limit), I wanted a fork that was going to be FAR over rated for my weight at 175 pounds, the stock fork and the Enve 1.0 was rated for 224 pounds. I'm hoping that fork will last a lifetime, so far so good, and that's my lifetime, not the forks!