I am not sure how smooth you have to be to be safe with the Race fork, but I run 3/8 axles, and like you said if you bend the dropouts because of peg use you get Dirt forks with you warranty, and if you bend the steer tube(or whatever you call it) they just give you an Odyssey Race for warranty. That is why I didn't stress to bad over getting the Race instead of Dirt, because I am safe anyway I go, and I wouldn't mind having a little lighter bike(if I went with the Race, which I did).