The fork needs to stay, you guy's that don't like it need to find a different brand of bike to buy. This bike handled this crappy winter brilliantly. Looks aren't everything.
That's a 2.1 29er tire in there. Freakin awesome. And once the snow melts I'll replace these tires with Small Block 8's of the same size. This bike goes where my other cross bike fears to tread.
Try that on other cross bikes!