Originally Posted by
uspspro
The Fatty name may have lived on, but that fork is definitely a much different design. Look closely, and you will see the typical bladed shaped fork legs, instead of the old beefy round tubes. Cannondale states the fork is manufactured using it's patented OPI process:
http://www.cannondale.com/innovation/OPI/
The OPI description has that the aluminum is
forged. This must be forged by
Dragon Tech, the Taiwan forging company behind Praxis chainrings. As far as aluminum forks go, this must be a really good aluminum fork. This may explain why Cannondale stayed with an aluminum fork rather than carbon. If they have a super duper new one-piece forged fork, why do they saddle it with the unfortunate name of the boat anchor welded fork that preceded it?
Cannondale’s patented 3D forging process allows us to take structures that would ordinarily consist of multiple pieces that would be bolted, bonded, welded or otherwise joined together and turn them into single-piece forged parts.
By forging the pieces from a single block of aluminum, we end up with exceptionally good grain alignment, which makes the parts stronger, and we eliminate excess, overlapping or redundant material, which makes them lighter.
This technology makes parts like the Lefty OPI outer tube/clamp structure, the Lefty OPI inner leg/axle, the OPI one-piece stem/steerer and the Backbone of the RZ120 possible.