First off I would say that I wouldn't change out the fork for the sake of weight. With that said I use to ride untill recently a Bianchi steel bike with a steel fork. You must realize that there are the camps that seem to think tha "steel is real" and how great it is and that nothing is better. Do you honestly think that if steel was so much better than carbon that almost all of the bike in the Tour would be carbon. The steel people will tell you that it is because they are sponsored by those companies and that if they were sponsored by a company that made steel bikes they would ride them. That is a bunch of lies. The top rides (not all of the riders) ride whatever bike they want , they just get painted to look like the team bike that they are suppose to ride. In years past the rider would wnat to ride say titanium and so they would get what they wanted painted. You always use to hear the so and so was actually riding a "litespeed" or some other type of bike that was painted the team colors. Marketing can only take you so far in getting everyone to want what they want to sell. I now have a all carbon bike and my steel bike was much rougher on the roads than my carbon bike is. I even have an old Trek original 3 tube carbon (only the three main tubes are carbon, the rest is aluminium) and it is not as harsh on the road.

The first person that replied tried to give you the impression that stuff made in China is junk and not of good quality. 90% of all of the bikes out there are made in either China or Tiawan right across the bay from the plants in China. Trek OCLV bikes are made in the USA, but their other bikes are made in China/Taiwan.

The steel forks are very expensive because not many people are buying them so not many people are making them, the the quantity discounts are not there. If the steel forks were so much better then why do most Colonogos have carbon forks even when the frame is steel? Even Landshark (a small high end steel bike manufacturer) is now selling bikes with carbon tubes.

For me the bottom line is if you want to have a smoother ride try out the carbon fork, the odds are you will find that it smooths out your ride.

By the way, I use to have a bike with Superbe Pro on it and it was some sweet stuff. Still would be loyal to Suntour if they didn't go out of business. I think I still even have a couple of wheels with the Superbe Pro hubs laced to MA 40 rims. THe hubs are still as smooth as can be and I have never worked on them. I also still have some of my MTB Suntour XC Pro components. Unfortunatly they didn't come with Suntour hubs. I still think that those Superbe Pro hubs were better than even my Campy hubs.

Sorry if I confused this issue but feel free to look at other threads where the "steel is real" croud battles it out with the rest.