The purpose of this most recent exercise was to establish if there really were any Alpha Q X2s floating around on the open market, which seemed doubtful. Secondarily, it woudn't have been an awful idea to have a second spare 44mm Alpha Q X2 sitting around 'just in case' we or anyone else were in a bind for an exact replacement fork for any tandem built around an Alpha Q X2 at some point.

Again, the rationale for having a 'spare' OEM replacement fork is to preserve the original specification of a given tandem long-term. Switching to a completely different fork would not accomplish that.

Also note that we're not talking about a mere brake change here, but an entirely different fork that would alter the front end geometry and steering in much the same way that even going to a Reynolds Ouzo Pro would.

Let's revisit these different forks:

Axle-Crown: X2 = 374mm / CX = 395mm / Ouzo = 395mm
Off-set: X2 = 44mm / CX = 47mm / Ouzo = 55mm
Weight: X2 = 375g / CX = 580g / Ouzo = 480g

Again, I do have one spare 44mm X2 on hand so I'm not too worried with regard to our Calfee. The Erickson has an older 48mm X2 which went out of production even earlier; however, I still have the original 900g steel fork built for that tandem back in '98 so I'm technically covered there noting the Erickson hasn't been touched since August 2008. And, yes, we even have a Reynolds Ouzo Pro sitting on the shelf from yet another one of Mark's larks.