I suspect that the rake of the Direct Drive fork is about 1/3 that of the Herse's fork. That's a lot more dimension to have the tight radius actually start to curve towards horizontal. BTW I suspect that the Herse's head angle is slacker, further making the fork tips more horizontal. No way the Specialized would end up with such an extended forward fork tip and retain the handling nature it was designed with.


IMO if you mimic the dimensions of the Direct Drive fork the handling that's due to geometry will be the same. But not all handling is geometry controlled, there's a rider too. So I would expect no handed riding to be pretty much the same but with hands on the flex difference (between AL and steel) comes into play. The steel fork will likely feel stiffer when out of the saddle, using your upper body a lot and over bumps. It will add around a half pound of weight.


Back in that era one way to "up grade" your steel racing bike was to swap out the steel fork for an Al one. I knew quite a few riders who did this as well as sold a handful number of Al forks in my LBS. Most all liked the lesser weight, the smoother ride over bumps but noted that there was a certain snap that was lost in the handling/cornering aspect.


If I had this bike and really liked how it felt handling wise, I would consider doing the same. Making a steel fork with identical dimensions. Andy.