Originally Posted by
freckles
Thank you! I did have to read it a few times to understand it but I appreciate your explanation! People here on BF are incredibly smart, mechanical and generous to share their knowledge!
The Dahon Curl single sided fork sounds intriguing... Am I wrong thinking there was a mountain bike with a single sided fork???
YES! It was the Cannondale with the Lefty fork. Which is almost what I called the new Dahon Curl, except that it's a Righty.

And here is why that is interesting: Typical front brake calipers, on the aft side of the left fork blade, under braking torque, cause the entire wheel to be pulled DOWN, sometimes hard enough to pull out of the dropouts, especially with a conventional quick-release axle. Flipping the caliper around to the forward side of the left fork won't work, the slot is wrong for the disc. You could mount it forward but inverted, but the cable would exit down. This is the driver I believe for thru-axle designs. But on a Righty fork, you can mount the caliper on the FRONT, cable up, and it lines up with a disc on the right, and wheel is actually pushed UP under braking. And it all uses a standard caliper. Why other makers with double bladed forks did not think of this and mount the caliper and disc on the right side, I don't know, probably just didn't think of it. In the rear (where you can't put the disc and caliper on the right, because it's the drive side with sprockets and chain), newer designs have the caliper above, or forward of the axle (inside the triangle) to solve this, or have a thru-axle.